The List

Drawing up a list of names to send invitations out to is rather like stock-taking.
You have to mentally run through each stage of your life, identify all your social circles and then decide who figures. That is, if you do it my way.

So it's inevitable that I always feel nostalgic whenever this comes up. I'll start wondering where all these ppl who were once the most regular faces in my universe are at this point in time and what they're doing.

But what's even more interesting I find is that sometimes I catch myself trying to decide whether or not a particular person shd be included. That I suppose is really just me trying to decide if my friendship with this person is more than a phase of my life.
Thus it's revealing in this sense, 'cos the process calls for me to define all my friendships - whether in a concious or subconcious manner.

Those whose names I'll put down in an instance - they're the stayers. Ppl who I still feel connected to long after our roads have parted. Well in a way, this is also like a renewal of sorts.

Those I'll leave out without further thought - I guess they never really went beyond "business", even though it might not look like it at that time.

And yes, those lurking in the grey area. What to make of them?
The Vatican has this rule which dictates that the beautification process can only take place 5 years after the death of the prospective candidate (though Pope John Paul II did of course dispensed with it for Mother Theresa). So perhaps it'll take more time before I can clearly discern where they ought to be.

The funny thing is, at the end of the day, no matter how thorough I've been in my "introspection", a part of me will still feel like I might have missed out someone. Not that whoever I've overlooked will know I've overlooked him/her and take it to heart. But the thought that I've forgotten a small piece of our history bothers me.