Are you a member of a chat group?
Seems everyone I know is involved with a couple text messaging groups on their phone.
Instead of getting together at the tavern or at the coffee shop or at the bowling alley or at the meeting room behind the rectory…
…We text message a group. A modern day version of getting together face to face.
I have a text group with the guys I know from my Chicago neighborhood. I’m in one with my Oak Park buddies. I’m in a couple with colleagues from the Board of Trade. I’ve got a chat group with the guys I currently work with. It is supposed to be market related texts, but there is an occasional political meme.
I’m in a group with the Saint Cletus Cardinals coaching staff. I have one with my rugby buddies. I have one called “Riverside Breakfast” that is used to set up the occasional breakfast at Michael’s Pancake House. I have another one with five guys in the neighborhood called “Riverside Boys.”
The last one involves texting on pizza, bourbon, local gossip, politics, sports and the occasional jab at each other.
Recently I formed a chat group with the guys I went to school with from seventh grade to senior year at Dear Old Cathedral…. It’s called “CKS Boys”
Yesterday was one of the Christ the King boys birthday. We chatted a bit and at one point a picture was posted. Three of the Boys were on a boat in the middle of a lake on a beautiful Friday afternoon.
I looked at that picture and saw three guys that have been friends for forty five to fifty years. When I say friends, I mean thick as thieves.
These Christ the King boys have been involved in each other’s lives everyday or at least every other day since the 1970’s. I was fortunate to become friends with them for a six year period forty some years ago.
I was a little jealous or definitely envious that I wasn’t on that boat yesterday. I was stuck in my trading office while the CKS Boys were jamming tunes, drinking a cold beverage and shooting the shit.
I’ve known these Indianapolis guys since 1978. I’ve known my Oak Park buddies since the early eighties. I’ve known my Board of Trade buddies since the late eighties. I’ve known the Cletus Cardinals since the beginning of the century. I’ve known my Futures International guys for fifteen years. My Chicago Blaze mates for ten years and my Riverside boys for the last seven years.
I’ve got all these groups of friends from different eras in my life. Some of them call me Big John. Many call me Shep and anyone that I’ve met after 1989 calls me Jumbo.
I’m pretty fortunate to have found all of these different groups.
Anyway, it is Saturday morning and the daylight is slowly creeping up into the darkness of night. The waning crescent moon is sitting above the arrival of the sun. It has been beautiful to watch as I think about all the people I’ve met through the years.
Knowing that wherever they are right now. They can look up and see the same moon and sunrise that I see.
Get up and text your friends with a good morning wake up call. Send them a picture of the bacon you’re making for breakfast.
Better yet, text them and make plans to meet for a walk, a growler of beer, a hotdog or Italian beef…
…or even better yet, go meet them on a boat to celebrate Tim Walsh’s birthday.
Be astonished today
