By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
What I am about to say is true for almost all kinds of reunions—family reunions, class reunions or barkada reunions.
One of the best part of it is the fellowship. It would be nice to hobnob again with old friends or acuaintances. Never mind the appearance of wrinkles on the faces of those (including me) who had been in constant battle with whatever life threw in front of them. It would be nice to share notes on how things turned out with everyone. Much of it of course would be gossip or tsismis. Certianly a thing or two can be learned from these.
The success of any reunion is dependent on the number of attendees. I don’t know if you can call a class reunion successful if only three attended. Thus, perhaps, the first thing to take care of is how to ensure that a good number will attend.
The reasons why some who would like to attend but won’t make it is lack of time. Modern life is continuously increasing our obligations from all corners that we are almost always pressed for time. Others would not be able to make it as they are too far away thus attending would be impractical. Still others will not make it due to insecurities on how their lives turned out. Of these reasons the last one is the most unfounded.
Because however we are, whatever our circumstance, we are equal to the rest of the class or the clan who will come in flashy cars and fancy clothes or those who have a number of university degrees after or before their names. For the bottom line is whether or not we are happy with our circumstances. Comparing it to countries, it is not actually the GNP (gross national product—a measure of economic progress) that matters. It is how happy the citizens are. So we should follow the example of the Republic of Bhutan. Instead of GNP they have GNH or gross national happiness.
For all you know, the person who comes in a flashy car might be having nightmares beating the monthly amortization. Or the money used to buy the car or his big house might have come from lending money with usurious interest or from corrupt practices thus he has a lot of stored bad karma in him waiting to ripen and to be expressed as incurable disease, accident or any other kind of misfortune that will befall him or his family.
As to those with big positions in the corporate world or in government, or those who have a string of university degrees after or before their names, or who otherwise enjoy some prestige in their fields or profession, just remember that their lives are stressful and are unenviable. As a result they might be struggling with a lot of problems including health problems (physical or mental) or those caused by succumbing to temptation.
We can go on and on. The point is, if you are happy or contented, you are the person to envy when you go to a reunion. Never mind your economic or professional circumstances.
And there is everything to gain by attending a reunion. Connections can be established. The help you need to finally get a project through might just be from a friend you never met in decades only for you to see him in a reunion. The knowledge you always needed to finalize a plan for a business concern might come from an old classmate who you never knew went on to gain some expertise in the field where your business would fall. Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera.
In my case, I would like to attend reunions to meet those who made tons of money so I could borrow from them. But it would be too bad if they still remember Shakespeare’s “Neither a borrower or a lender be.”**
