Lots of milestones in life unify people for one reason or
another. Home ownership, entering
the working world, and becoming parents are just a few of the world’s great
unifiers. But if you really stop
and think about it, those things really
bring people together. And when
you are in the company of a person with something like that in common, it seems
to take quite some time before there is even a slight lull in the conversation. These unifiers are just the things for
which we can all offer differing perspectives, and tell a story. And because of that commonality, we can
relate, be entertained, and just shoot the breeze.
Many of these unifiers brought me into some fun conversation
last weekend. I attended a holiday
sweater party in the neighborhood. For starters, we all have our neighborhood in common. Now, I am somewhat left out of this
because the neighborhood is filled with custom homes (for none of these do I
actually know the name…) and then we live in the original farmhouse. I know. We are lucky. Our house is, well, an awesome piece of
history. But, choosing this place,
owning a home there, and having a genuine interest in the neighbors brought us
all together. And might I say, it
was a supremely fine time.
Motherhood is another big one. It is not unlikely to have a glass of wine or two, and then
find yourself trading labor stories.
For people who have not yet had kids, or do not plan to have them, this
probably sounds completely barbaric.
But I promise you, get one woman talking about pregnancy, and the next
thing you know, you have learned most of the labor, start to finish, what the
husband/partner was doing that time, and obviously, how it all ended (sometimes
down to the last gory detail)… But if you’ve been through it, or want to go
through it, it gets pretty darn interesting. Motherhood unifies us.
These unifiers brought me to another, rather entertaining,
realization: I probably would not
have been friends with ANY of these people in high school. While I didn’t eat lunch alone or
anything like that, I was more of a theatrical person, and my social group
reflected that. I was somewhat shy
(until you knew me), and probably didn’t give myself enough credit in terms of
a social life. But, you certainly
did not find me at the “popular” lunch table. I was a nice person (except in fourth grade… I don’t know
why, but I was the meanest little brat on earth. I guess I was insecure. Why does a 4th grader act sadistic? I do not know… if I could turn back
time I would lay the smack on my 4th grade self!!!) . But in any
case, at the top of the social ladder, I was not. And as I looked around this party, it seemed to me that I
was surrounded by people who were probably infinitely cooler than I was in high
school. And this gave me the
greatest laugh, because who cares?
Look at us now. We all pay
bills, go to work, or run our households (or both), and we all enjoy donning a
silly sweater, having a cocktail, and eating delicious food. And we can trade some darn fine stories
in the process. Some people dread
the real world: the bills, the responsibility, and gasp, the gray hair (well,
at least for me!). But you know
what? The real world can be super sweet
too. Because somewhere along the
lines we all get real, barriers come
down (if they ever even existed in the ways we thought they did in high
school), and we spend time for the sake of spending time. And we enjoy. It’s all good, man.
Happy Holidays :)
