Facets of Our Lives

My godmother had a birthday last week, turning 65 years old. As she's gotten older, my mother has begun to be more conscious of people dying. My godmother is fine, of course, but my mother was worried that she would not be notified if something were to have happened. Despite having been friends for nearly 50 years, there aren't many people left who would know to call my mother if my godmother passed away. But this is not a problem unique to the older set. Thanks to the internet, I was able to reconnect with someone I'd not spoken to, at that point, in 15 years. In catching up, I learned that he had almost died a few years before. Aside from being relieved that he had survived, I realized how devastated I would have been if I had not re-established contact in time. And unless I now specifically directed him to make some sort of arrangement, I might not find out if something happened to him even now. We are all connected yet disconnected. Not to be morose, but if I we...

Publishing early this week -- Enjoy your Friday and the weekend! High school reunions. These periodic events are a chance for people to reminisce, reconnect, and even renew. The majority of people I know do not attend their reunions, whether they be 10-year, 20-year, or more. I didn't go to mine. I am not saying there is anything wrong if you are someone who does go and/or looks forward to these things. I am just not among this group. I am curious as to what people look like now, what they've done with their lives, and that sort of thing, but not enough to set aside time to go. My 20-year reunion conflicted with a professional event I was chairing, so I had a reasonable excuse -- but even without an excuse, I'd probably not have attended. I've always said that if there was anyone from high school I wanted to stay in touch with, I would. And I have. It doesn't mean that I don't care about other friends I had or anything like that, but we're adults now ...

Publishing a few hours early. In 2009, MTV Canada began airing a 30-minute program called 1 girl 5 gays   ( US site link ). Initially, it was in the form of a free-flowing discussion based upon selected viewer questions. By episode 8, they moved to a format of 20 questions about love and sex, asked to the 5-man group of 20-something panelists and moderated by show host Aliya-Jasmine Sovani. In 2010, MTV Canada's sister channel, Logo, began airing episodes in the US. Currently, new episodes air in Canada on Fridays at 11pm Eastern, and in the US on Mondays at 11pm Eastern (Logo also airs older episodes each night, except Fridays). The new US episodes are about 10-12 weeks behind the Canadian episodes, except for special occasions, like the recent appearance of Jonathan D. Lovitz of Logo's Setup Squad on the panel. The concept behind the show is to give viewers a fly-on-the-wall participation in conversations that we might have or have had with our friends about any variety ...