Let's Share A Story!

I spent this past weekend with four of my friends from my childhood though high school. We, for the most part, all went to school together (and were in classes together), were all in band together, all went through boy scouts together, and helped each other with whatever crazy idea was on the table at the time (building a hovercraft was one of my favorites).

I think it was the first time we had all been together in the past 4 or 5 years since high school. I have seen two of them frequently throughout the past several years, but had only communicated with the other two over long distances.

We all met in Beaumont, TX, which was about a 4-5 hour drive for me. On the way back, I had plenty of time to think about the weekend and the fun we had. As I drove further away from them and closer to home, my tired muscles and sleepy eyes were calling me to immediate reminiscence of all the fun we packed into two days together. We did a lot – playing games, swimming in the gulf, catching up with each other and telling each other what we have been up to through college.

While watching piney woods transform into open fields, I recalled the countless stories we have shared throughout our lives, including the new ones we just wrote this weekend.

My thoughts then turned to the future and the fact that this may have been the last time I saw all those guys for another four years. Those thoughts went a little something like this.

But then I thought about those stories. Not individually, but rather as a whole. And I thought about that huge four year gap in our shared stories. It is in no way a bad thing, but it made me wonder.

We are of course all facebook friends. And I have kept up with each of the other four through facebook pretty well (excluding one guy who has a profile but never uses it...who does that anymore?). Everyone knows that online networking is in no way a replacement for face to face human interaction, but I finally realized to the full extent why it could never be.

I can share my stories on facebook, or here, and I can read or hear stories shared with me by friends online in some form. But there is a huge difference between sharing stories and sharing life. As great as the internet is, I can never share life with anyone on it. I can talk to and see friends through modern technology and to an extent interact with them, but I can never truly share life in the way I did this weekend as I ate with, swam with, laughed with, and went to sleep and woke up with friends (I will avoid the phrase slept with although we did all crash in the same room).

As great as it is, I don't think the new iphone can even truly enable a sharing of life.

I realize that I can't share life with everyone all the time, but when given the option I would much rather share life with someone than merely share stories. Besides, while sharing life you make stories, and as fun as sharing stories is, making them is infinitely better.