Come Together

Now that the reunion is over, it feels as if we've become a bunch of nomads, trying to find our way back to the Omega oasis. But all we see are mirages - lots of chain-emails, a few phone calls, even lunch with old friends who've lived, unbeknownst, at the same longitude and latitude for many years.

These disparate attempts suggest a need to communicate in a non-linear, real-time mode in this diaspora of geographic displacement.

As can be imagined, this is no mean feat. Technology is an unfeeling, unseeing barrier to interpersonal relationships. Emails are often muddled and confused in their message, and other modes are equally challenging. Stranded on our Omega atolls, we send out messages in electronic bottles, hoping to reach the other castaways.

The explosion of joy at reuniting after forty years of separation can never be duplicated. Now, many are surfing the ripples of that tidal wave. But others are being pro-active, forming smaller tribes. Florida is a hotbed of Omega activity. The tri-state area is home to many Omegans. New Jersey can be parsed-down to a few towns in the north, central and southern regions.

This has spawned a promising offspring from that common point of origin : the microreunion. One by one, two by two we've left the arc and reconnected in small ways. But they are by no means insignificant: best friends have jumped back onto the continuum. Musicians who became unstrung at camp's end are tuning up for a new opus.

And so it must go, until our mutual DNA recombines and we "come together" again.