Talking about Tuesday

I went to a luncheon meeting today that was organized by a local association to which I belong. My purpose in going was as much to see friends and acquaintances who belong to the group as to listen to the speaker...not a bad speaker or topic, just not of current interest. As usual, the host hotel served hors d'oeuvres and glasses of wine while we milled about outside the luncheon/meeting room.

I was struck by how few of the participants I knew. Not too many years ago, when I served on the board of the organization and indulged myself in being a thorn in the side of the more conservative folks on the board, I knew everyone. Infrequent attendance on my part, as well as on the part of my old compadres, has made me something of an outsider. That's fine; I'm no longer interested in molding the organization to conform to my ideas of what it should be like...I no longer consider it particularly important.

Back to the friends and acquaintances...they were few and far between. I imagine there were only 5-10 of the people I used to see regularly. A few years ago, I would expect to see 30-40 of the "old farts" who shaped the organization in its youth. I miss seeing them...not on a deep, personal level so much as in a way that feeds my curiosity...I suppose it's a shallow, impersonal level.

Perhaps the root of what I am defining now as moderate disinterest has to do with the fact that these people are all involved in association management, people whose professional lives are wrapped around running the day-to-day and strategic direction of professional societies and trade associations. I used to have a deep, abiding interest in that. No longer. My interests have shifted dramatically toward things that, in my way of thinking, matter. Face it, if every association in the country were to disappear tomorrow, it would not be catastrophic (except for the people whose jobs disappeared with them). That is, on a fundamental level, associations don't matter. I'm more interested in things that do matter, things that can impact the world, or my tiny piece of it, in a positive way.

Anyway, my interest...where is it today? I am interested in things as diverse as agriculture and climatology, sociology and philosophy, woodworking and watercolor painting, welding and water purification. My interest does not translate into knowledge...not yet. One other thing that seems to transcend my interest in all of these things (and which has resulted in my retreat from conversations about these interesting topics)...a liberal point of view. The trick in this blood red state to pursuing something of interest with people who share that interest is to either: 1) avoid all discussions dealing with social and political discourse or 2) find the other person (as in, singular, one, only...the one) in the geographic area who shares both the interest and the political point of view. I'm not good at either one.

OK, enough of that. I'm off to our annual neighborhood association meeting. I wonder what's new with them?