Together

Been many years since I left secondary school. When it was approaching twenty years, a friend set up a WhatsApp group and we just seemed to find everyone again. Some had passed on, and we had become very well distributed across the globe. Shapes and sizes had morphed in several ways. Finally, we had a reunion! It was my recurring pleasure to greet the ladies with titles. I would tell them that if I dare call them by first name in public, I could get a slap from a passerby for being such a rude youth! That always made everyone laugh. And they’ll usually add, “You are not a serious person!”
In time, the greetings and hailing on social media began to appear too many. Often times topics of discussion were not of interest. Because of global dispersion, the group was active like 24/7. Then the group limit of 100 was attained. A second group was formed. It turned out to be a more quiet group and some of us began to “decamp” to the more quiet group.
Nevertheless, greeting and sharing memories still felt weak to hold us together long term. Then a banker dropped an article on economics and we discussed it, and it was great. Then someone proposed a book review. The idea was quickly embraced and criticized at the same time. We eventually created a new group with a membership of about 8% of the whole.
However, in this one-book-per-month group, we began to get closer, to ask questions and to share experiences: how we got into careers, how we made money, how we lost money, how we lost jobs, etc. As the months progressed, people began to share how points picked from a book (which they would not otherwise have read) have positively impacted their lives.
We began to look forward to our periodic one-chapter-a-day group chats. And then we began to meet one-on-one to discuss life and business.
Looks like we have finally found value in our coming together after decades. As long as it’s the book-club-chat, no one complains of too many messages; some apologise for not showing up; others take position to ask pungent questions that do give direction. However, purpose defined helps maximize value in togetherness.