Whiplash - The Good Kind

Physical whiplash, with its injuries to the neck, is not good.  A brief medical visit with the all-knowing Dr. Google will show that to be true.  But what if you get together with classmates from high school, and bounce back and forth between high school memories and more recent years?  That's MENTAL whiplash, and it's both safe and fascinating.

The last couple of years I have used many excuses to drive out to Brookings from my home in the Twin Cities.  Whenever possible, I set up a meal at Pizza King or Nick's or McDonald's to get together with as many friends as possible.  If I know that a friend from the 1960s will be stopping in Brookings  --or already lives there--  he or she is invited.

The conversations slide in an instant from "Remember when?" to "Where are you now?"  Memories of 50 years ago compete with current circumstances. Topics flow from old classmates ... to young grandchildren, between past reflections ... and recent retirements.  Questions like "Why did you do that back then?" are answered with reasons that tell The Rest of the Story, as Paul Harvey used to say.  Some memories are incorrect, some are repressed, many are exaggerated, others just plain wishful thinking.  Corrections and clarifications are sometimes flattering, sometimes painful, often hilarious.  The past illuminates the present, and a person is thankful for the opportunity to look back.  After all, not all of our friends and classmates are alive, able to do what we are doing in these moments.  This Replay Machine is one of the gifts of growing older.  We are given a small dose ... of wisdom ... and we are grateful.

If you are given the opportunity, gather friends from the past and play Mental Whiplash.  It's good for the soul.