7 years, 6 months ago by Mike Moyers
We, as a society living in the age of FACEBOOK, TWITTER, SNAPCHAT and all the rest, are missing one of life’s little pleasures. The art of conversation.
I recently attended my 45th Class Reunion (QHS Class of 1971) and came away with a renewed respect for the spoken word. “The Dock” was the site for our Friday night get together and after a few embarrassing moments where you had to look at the name tag of the person in front of you before you could actually form a sentence, the night was most enjoyable. Those who attended, somewhere in the neighborhood of 175, were all on their best behavior, had showered recently and donned something nice. The ladies all looked great and the men, well that’s another story.
It was fun to watch everyone make their way around the room-looking at name tags-and then looking the person in the eye with a big smile or even a hug or two. But the most important thing was: we talked to one another. I honestly believe that no one, other than myself, chose to check their cell phone for messages during the entire Friday gala. (I was just checking to make sure the QHS/GALESBURG video stream was doing ok on wtad.com) It's called work, you know.
Friday was fun and “The Dock” did indeed rock.
Saturday it was more of the same. I had a chance to catch up to those I has missed the night before. “The Elks” played host and they did a fabulous job. The food, service and atmosphere were all outstanding. And the night was perfect.
While most all of the conversations taking place around the room were light and somewhat superficial they were just that: conversations. Lots of “remember when we fill in the blank?” or “what ever became of fill in the blank ?” There was no chest beating or “hey look at how successful I am” or none of that stuff. We were just glad to see one another and most of all; just happy to be alive.
I was reliving last weekend as I was attempting to make a business call this week and was forced to listen to the pre-recorded auto-answer prompts telling me the customer’s store hours, and what number to push to reach this department and that department and then what number to push to get to the directory and all that. Yes, I had that much time to reflect on Reunion 45.
After a full 5 minutes of listening to all that nonsense I reached my party. And the first question I asked was, “is all that crap really necessary?” And they replied; “it’s all corporate. They don’t want to spend the money for a receptionist.”
And that’s the world in which we live. Push a button, scroll down, text, post, TWEET; it’s all crazy stuff.
We spend every waking moment showing and telling anyone and everyone about what our cat did, about our thoughts on racial injustice or what we had for lunch.
But actually talking with, having a conversation with, laughing with—those moments seem to be few and far between.
And that’s too bad.
