Lourdes Reunion

A reunion calls to mind former classmates, even seatmates -- maybe even the one who tied your belt to the back of your chair so when you were called to the blackboard the whole seat got up with you; or the one who shared a secret one balmy afternoon after school while you sat at the corner of Pioneer Drive and Shaw waiting for a jeep -- but not really waiting. Girls, teachers, test scores, soirees. These and other things come back to us at reunions, sweet-sour things we thought we stashed all the way inside the sanctums of our hearts, only to be dusted off and displayed for a little while again.

True enough. But this reunion, just like the one last year, is different. Because in this as in the former, we don’t just reunite former classmates; we introduce new friends.

Last Christmas, I got a taste of what this means. I sat with Oliver Darvin, Rene Gacuma, Norman Cabrera and others, as they planned this event. The guys were gracious, funny and bright. But I had never met them before, because they belonged to other batches. And as I sat there, I was never made to feel out of their circle. There was never a doubt that together we belonged to something bigger than us, for we were brother SOLs, and from hereon out, there was much we could do together.

There is value in remembering. But this reunion is not about what’s dusted off our past, then stuffed back inside for another year; it’s about the new living, breathing brotherhood that is now and tomorrow.

Pax et bonum!
Rodney Garcia
Washington D.C.