30 Years

Thirty years sounds like a really long time, but today it felt so meaningless.  Brian and I spent the afternoon with a friend of mine from high school days (Craig) and his wife (Bounce), and aside from the fact that our spouses were new, and 30 years of catch up had to happen, it felt like the four of us were simply catching up on what happened over the weekend, not over a life time.  Of course, we were different people then, and we're different people now, but it was great to be ourselves today with someone that I saw briefly two years ago, then before that not for about 25 years.  Amazing!

We didn't reminisce about old times, because Brian and Bounce weren't part of that time.  Instead we just talked about whatever happened to come up.  All four of us had vast and differing experiences of travel, work, relationships, education, yet we had so much in common.  We laughed and talked and ate and walked and laughed and drank and laughed and ate and laughed... well, you get the picture. 

All four of us have recently spent most of out time with folks 20+ years difference in age to us.  Brian and I spend our time with folks in the 60+ category and Craig and Bounce work mainly with 20-somethings.  Since we're firmly in our mid-40's (Bounce is early 40's, but she's so much fun we'll let her hang with us in the mids), it was really good to talk with folks our own age who have shared references and get our jokes immediately and effortlessly.  Who'd have thought that would be such a big deal?  We experienced the same thing when hanging out with Ben and Kate, and with Margaret and Glen, but we had a longer shared friendship with those families and a shorter time apart, so it wasn't such a revelation.

We shared all sorts of fun facts - why, when and how we got married (both very entertaining stories), what books we were reading, what movies we enjoyed, how we got to our current location and positions, and more.  Neither couple chose to have children, which made for different connections than when one couple has kids and the other doesn't.  It was all about shared experiences and choices, different from each other, but oh so similar when seen from a distance. 

I loved this afternoon.  It wasn't about revisiting who we no longer are, but was instead about introducing who we are now and finding new connections; talking about what happened since we last saw each other so we can see how we've lived.  I'm pretty sure we'll be getting together again in the next couple of months when Brian and I go to Seattle again.  There was only one sad moment today, and that was when I found out that we had all lived in Seattle at the same time for almost 3 years without knowing the others were there.  Alas. But no matter, we have connected now and will make the most of that connection.