"The More We Get Together"

This morning a song was going through my head, "The more we get together, together, together. The more we get together the happier we'll be." Now I haven't sung that since I was eight or nine but today it came back to me. I guess the reason is that lately I have been getting together more.

For years I would drive through the local fast food restaurant in the mornings and I would see older men sitting around talking and drinking coffee. I always wondered what they were talking about because they were there day after day. It seemed to me they would run out of things to talk about at some point.

But now I have become one of them. No, I don't sit around in the morning but I have found a group of my contemporaries who eat lunch together every day. I don't join them every day. If I did I would be bigger than I already am. But I do go a couple of times a week. I join in the talk about politics, movies, sports and the war. I have been doing this for the past few months and the talk never even slows down. There is always something to talk about.

In this group there is a judge, two lawyers, a retired military man, a store manager, an engineer and me. The ages range from forty till death. We are a diverse group but everyone enjoys all the others. We don't agree on a lot of things but the one thing we do agree on is we all like to talk.

This communication thing seems to be bigger than ever. I know people who spend hours each day blogging with a bunch of people they have never met. And among the kids it is text messaging. What a mania that is. A friend of mine told me she took her daughter and a bunch of her friends to a ballgame. On the way back you could have heard a pin drop in the car. Now that is not what I would expect to happen when you get a group of teenage girls together. But this group instead of talking was text messaging. They were texting their friends and even each other (the better for the adult not to be able to hear).

We all have an innate need to communicate. I know it is true with me. I spend a lot of time at my computer writing. That is a lonely activity and some time I do it for days on end. When I stop and go to meet friends and talk I get a rush. My mood immediately lifts and things are better. I don't know if there is actually some fluid that is transmitted by your body when you communicate but something gives you a charge.

My wife and I have always been talkers. We have these marathon conversations that we call cleaning closets. They help clear the air and keep us on an even keel. I think that is why our marriage is so good - we talk to each other.

You know it is amazing how the things we learned in childhood really do carry through the years. That childhood song said it all. The more we get together with friends and communicate the happier we will be. At least that is true for me.
 

 

 

 

 

©2008 Jackie K. Cooper

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