Same Procedure as Last Year...

I haven't posted in a while.  That's because I haven't had a lot to complain about. Well, that's not totally true.  I try to leave my professional life completely out of this blog.  Let's just say that I haven't had a lot to complain about in my personal life and leave it at that.

It's that time of year for golf.  Specifically, once each year, I plan and look forward to a get-together with a bunch of guys that I went to high school with, back in the days that Nixon was president, NORML was new, Vietnam was still a bad place to go, Canada was still a good place to go, "hip" teachers were the ones who smoked pot (and shared), sports was something nobody really took seriously (other than beer drinking -- that we took very seriously), Bob Dylan could still sing (sort of), Steven Stills and Graham Nash were well known musicians and, well, I could go on and on.

But what I want to talk about today is the fact that, among the 10 or so people that I feel lucky to have known fairly well in high school, we are all so different today.  All of us grew up with fairly insular upbringings in small-town America.  None of us were really considered "well-off" like some of the "big city" kids in neighboring towns.

All of us have gone through our careers, some of us married, others didn't.  Some of us had kids.  Some of us pursued professional careers, others blue collar.  Some of us are conservatives and some of us are liberals.  And yet, when we all get together for that one weekend each summer, we're all on an even playing field.  Nobody really cares about all that stuff that went on in high school -- except maybe for a little good-natured trash talking that inevitably goes on. In some ways, for that one weekend, it's like we never left our little home town.  Nobody really cares who makes the big bucks, who drives the nicest car -- nobody is keeping score (except for the golf game and we tend to liberally interpret the rules of golf that weekend!

I wonder why that is (but I'm glad it's that way).  We were all so competitive in high school and, now, its so irrelevant.  What is relevant is that we all enjoy and treasure a weekend together.  It's not about the golf or anything else that we do -- it's just about enjoying each others company.  And that's the way it should be. Somehow, for one weekend, all is well and the world is in balance.  I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend and I value that weekend more than just about anything outside of the well-being of my immediate family.  Two weeks to go and I can't wait!