Let’s Meet Up

I don’t know if it’s the age we live in or my own age that has made planning to meet people so complicated.

For the past two weeks, I have been on an email chain with four people trying to come up with a day and time we can meet. My inbox is cluttered with suggested dates and times, acceptances, rejections, and revisions. All four of us are retired from full-time work but we seem to be busier than ever.

My wife and I have a similar situation trying to meet with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids. That exchange is all phone calls and text messages.

I had to make a doctor’s appointment with a new doctor this week. I called and the office person was looking at a screen that I can’t see and throwing out a series of possibilities. “What about the week of November 21? How is the 23rd at 1pm?” and from there we bounced back and forth on days and times.

Last month I was in a doctor’s office for my annual physical. Afterward, they wanted me to make my appointment for next year. “Can you do October 11, 2023, at 11:30?” I look at my phone’s calendar. Empty for now, so yes. But I’m thinking that I have no idea what will come up in the year to come. I might not even be alive! “You can always change it,” said the office person.

So much of this is electronic calendaring. But I was talking one-on-one with a friend at a coffee shop and we wanted to pick a time to meet again. “My calendar is at home – on paper, ” he said. “I’ll give you a call and we can figure it out.”

There is a website and app I use called meetup.com used for groups to meet both virtually and in person. I joined a Socrates Cafe group when it went virtual at the start of the pandemic. I also joined a walking/hiking group. The good thing about it is that the meetings are set by a group leader and you RSVP if you can attend. No negotiations. You can meet up or you can’t.

So, is it our busy lives that make meeting people so difficult? Do electronic devices make it easier or harder?

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