Tag… You’re It
One of my lighter posts today.
Social media takes a lot of knocks, often deservedly so, from stirring the pot of politics, religion, race, etc. You name an issue, and someone certainly will not be hesitant to launch a grenade onto a social media page to get everyone fired up. And of course, having an even bigger impact on our lives, having a personal information used by the owners of the particular social media sites.
But I digress. There is one thing that I do appreciate about social media, Facebook in particular. No, it is not the cute puppy videos, or travel photos, or flashbacks of days rather forgotten. But social media has given us an opportunity to reconnect with those in our past like never possible before. Seriously, you can now live anywhere in the world, and be able to get back in touch with, and stay in contact with anyone.
How far back do you go? How far would you want to go back? And why?
Face it, being an adult has its drawbacks. Responsibility and simply lacking the ability to give a shit does not make being an adult fun (though being a parent is definitely the best feeling in the world). Look at everything we deal with as adults, politics, war, inflation, crazy weather… we never cared about that as kids. We could care less. Playing a game of ball, riding bikes, or just hanging out in an arcade, life was good.
So it would make perfect sense then, to use social media as a way to go back to our childhood. No, we cannot do it physically, but the memories of a time when our lives may have been simpler, can often be just what we need at a current moment to help us get through a difficult period.
I know on my Facebook, I have several “neighborhood” and school friends that go back more than 45 years, reconnecting in spite of there being over a thousand miles from us. Every now and then, a photo pops up of us in our younger years, and we can remember everything, every detail of the location, and we cannot help but smile. Yeah, those were good times. I remain friends with a kid who lived across the street from me. I have several friends from elementary school, junior high school, high school, and college. The levels of friendship vary from casual to remaining the best of friends. And for the most part, most of these reconnections have survived the controversies blasted on social media. Instead, the majority of us share stories of our past, support each other as some deal with health issues or other stressful events, and even some, make new travel plans to reconnect in person.
In the movie “Tag” (based on a true story), grown men, 30 years after their childhood, continue a tradition of one game of tag that has continued seemingly forever. The players get together once a year, for a month, to continue playing. They have rules that they play by, and pretty much there is no level they will go to, to tag someone. The thing is, these guys grew up with each other, and continued that friendship 30 years into their adulthood. I found this very cool. Why? Because I still keep in touch with some of my friends when I was a child. No, we do not play tag or anything, but we do still offer support, share happiness and sorrows. The friendships are still there, just as in the movie. And yes, this was based on a true story as the end of the movie shows the actual players involved over the various years, some scenes played out in the movie, others not. And during the closing credits, and who knew, Jeremy Renner can sing, but you have to stick around for that.
I get the concept behind “Tag”. In childhood, we did not have to worry about the big issues. And for most in adulthood, we do not take the time to put those big issues aside, unless we plan it that way. I say, if you have a chance to get back on that ball field, or hang out in the old basement, do it. We may change over time, or as some call it, grow up, but the memories are always going to be there, and always available to give us a much needed distraction when needed, to a time when things were simpler.
Paul's Heart 