Ever been to a reunion? Most people I know seem to attend at least one of their high school reunions. It's such a transformative time of life that the curiosity about what ever happened to__? Sometimes just a few years can change a person"s appearance, their beliefs, their personality, or even their occupation. The curiosity about how someone is doing or how they "turned out" is not worth the risk of actually going back home to find out. Most folks I know go to one reunion and never feel the need to do it again. Some people live for them rather than avoid them, but as the years go by, the pool of eligible attendees lessens.
About 55 years ago, I was a VISTA Volunteer in Houston, Texas. Our project did some interesting things and was mostly composed of recent college graduates from all over the country. We had a 50th reunion that was both fascinating and a tad depressing. People age. Some better than others. Some you would recognize anytime, anywhere. Others, you would never recognize unless told. That's the way of aging. Still, there is something mildly admirable of seeing old friends as truly old friends.
Recently, I re-connected with a couple of other friends from that time in my life. Through a series of emails, from folks I had reunited with, I reached out to a couple friends who did not make the reunion. Some additional emails resulted and a sort of friendship rekindled. Recently, I realized I dis not know what these two people looked like. I could only imagine them as 55 years older, with gray hair, probably and all the other physical attributes of aging. A most unique feeling. Especially since their current appearance will remain unknown and only an artificial feature of my imagination.
(There are 10 people in the above photo. I have no idea what 3 of them look like 55 years later)
If nothing else, one of the benefits of age is that many of us finally come to terms with our physical appearance. We stop worrying about how we and other people look.
Some years ago, when I was in my 40s, I took a friend in his 70s to a political gathering. It was a party in a trendy San Francisco night spot where people mingled and dances, and met each other. My friend and I went in two directions an walkabout the room. About an hour later we encountered each other. He with a woman friend about my age he'd just met. We acknowledged each other and then she moved on.
"Do you think she is attractive?"' my friend asked me.
"Yeah, she was OK," was my weak reply. "Do you think she's attractive?" I asked.
His reply has stayed with me forever. He said, without hesitation, "At my age, they are all attractive."
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