My sister visited recently from out of town and it gave us an opportunity to join our Mother for her monthly women's Birthday luncheon. This group of women's commonality is that at some point in their lives they have resided in the Town of Vauxhall or area. The group started out taking turns hosting once a month in their homes so they could stay in touch with each other and celebrate their birthdays. This has been going on for over 30 years. The group continued to grow until it was necessary to meet in a restaurant as no one had the capability to host so many women. This group now is almost 50 strong.
Just to put this in perspective Vauxhall is a town of just over 1000 residents. It is hard to imagine how strong the bonds are that tie together a community of this size and how long lasting the relationships are to keep this group growing and meeting over such a long time span with no signs of it stopping or even slowing down.
Not to mention that hardly any of them have computer skills and even fewer are on Facebook or some other Social network. They plan each month from the last month and somehow the information highway works and they show up at the next function ready to visit and catch up with old friends.
It was remarkable to be a part of this group and see familiar faces and hear stories of how their families are doing and how many additions or deletions have happened. And more than that it was nice to see their smiles and feel their genuine interest in our lives as we brought them up-to-date on what is happening. The hugs and heartfelt emotion cannot be replaced inside your computer.
I am a huge Social network advocate but there really is something about those face to face "make the effort" meetings that really cannot be replaced by Facebook or Twitter.
So here's to the original Social Network...."the real deal"...."get off your butt"......"make the effort to see your friends".....network.
We could really learn a lot from this group of lovely ladies.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment