Pondering a College Reunion

All Hail UVA '87

Your humble sub-stacker, May 1987

In a little under a month, I will attend the 35th Reunion of the UVA Class of 1987. The Alumni Association there does a lot of things well, and running reunions is one of them. Of the previous six reunions, I think I have only missed one, but I can’t even be sure of that. I could very well have been to all of them. Every five years I am re-acquainted with how well my classmates and I have aged, although age looms large in this year’s gathering. Reunions Weekend groups together a number of classes five years apart. Too many, it seems, to accommodate them all in one weekend. So they run things through twice, and this is the first year for our class to confab with the “Old Folks”, so looking young by comparison won’t nearly be the challenge it was last time, when we were the league veterans.

When I graduated, I made a vow that each time I returned to Charlottesville involving an overnight stay, I would lodge at the Boar’s Head Inn, which is quite nice and a bit pricey. This was of course, a pretentious vow, but I stuck with it for a number of years when my income was not as well aligned with my pretense as it is now. I excused myself from the vow a few years ago when some reputable establishments opened right across the way from “the Lawn” and “Central Grounds” (the quad and campus to you knaves), and of late I’ve been using them. I sometimes crash after football games at a lower budget place outside of town, but that’s usually for just a few hours of sleep before the four hour drive home. I’ll be right down on the Corner for the reunion, which is a heck of a lot more convenient than the Boar’s Head—from which I had to drive and park each day in the past. I have chosen convenience over pretense.

Some of my best friends in the entire world walked the Lawn with me in May of 1987, people I see regularly to this day and whose friendship I treasure. One of those fellows for whatever reason has decided not to show this year (I’m talking to you, Stick), and his loss will be felt. But a goodly number will be there, and I will spend an entire weekend luxuriating in their love, moving between moments of utter joy and utter gratitude.

I sometimes wish there were a different way for these things to happen, as I think (if I can do math in public) I attended UVA with members of seven graduating classes—84, 85,86, 87, 88, 89, and 90, and I knew people in all of them, though I’d reckon 85-89 is the sweet-spot. How cool would it be to attend a massive reunion bringing together EVERY class you attended with?

Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Catherine came with me last time, and she’s coming again this time. One of her best friends from high school married a dude in my first year dorm (she ‘88, he ‘87); it was this event (20th year version) that led to our being fixed up, when Catherine’s friend held out the possibility of introducing me to her. This foursome is another great treasure.

This year there is a little less earnestness in things, as at both 25 and 30, the glimmer of possibility that one or both of my two lovely and brilliant daughters might someday attend, drove me to at least one lecture on the UVA admissions process. As both are finishing up elsewhere next year, I can blissfully skip the soul-crushing math of the modern college admissions racket and spend my time cavorting with friends.

Why I Am Not Writing About Abortion

Only Americans living off the grid in some lonely wilderness will be unaware of one of the biggest news stories in recent memory, big enough to—at least for a time—knock the Russian invasion of Ukraine somewhat out of public consciousness. The leak of a draft Supreme Court decision potentially overturning Roe and Casey has thrown social-media driven news reporting into a tizzy, and just about anyone who has a view and a platform is opining.

And so I’m not going to. I have strong opinions on the outcome and the means by which we learned of it. I have strong opinions about the faith (bad) in which arguments for and against abortion have been wielded. I have strong opinions on the roles of the Supreme Court, the Constitution, Federalism, and divided government in arranging public life.

But nothing I say or write would be original. I am not legally-trained, so my analysis of legal arguments should be discounted. I am an ideological conservative, so performative and emotion-based demonstrations of virtue are without meaning. There is not a single thought in my mind about this subject that has not already been voiced with more authority and clarity by someone else. Should you wish to avail yourselves of those opinions, I wish you well.

But not here. I apologize to those readers who would like to read my views, and I am grateful for whatever number they are for taking me seriously enough to desire them. If we happen to run into each other somewhere, and you want to have a chat, I’ll be happy to do so. I just do not think the world will be in any way bettered by me adding to this maelstrom, and to be honest, anything I can do to quiet passions in America these days seems worth doing.