After the party

My high school graduating class had a party at our house last night. Not that many of us were there--which was disappointing--but the ones who came wanted to be there. We laughed, we talked,we remembered--with varying degrees of accuracy--class trips and other events. We didn't sing the school song or hash over old grievances. What we did--and maybe I'm looking at this with my usual Pollyanna-ness--was celebrate our differences.

Ours was a small class from a small school in a small community i...