Let’s Get Together

Wikipedia says that “Let’s Get Together” is a song written … for the 1961 Disney film The Parent Trap. It was sung in the film by teen actress Hayley Mills, using double-tracking because she played both the roles of twin sisters, which was a technical feat in the early 1960s. (Just the mention of this song has put it in my head for the rest of the day.)

The last verse of the said song goes like this:

Let’s get together, yeah yeah yeah

Two is twice as nice as one

Let’s get together right away

We’ll be having twice the fun

And you can always count on me

A gruesome twosome we will be

Let’s get together, yeah yeah yeah!

That song has stayed in my head because I was less than ten years old at the time, and I was at my first drive-in movie when I heard it. It also has stayed in my head for more than fifty years because I have uttered that phrase many times.

There’s an old German proverb that says, “One of these days is NONE of these days.”

Many a well-meaning person has said to a friend, “Hey, let’s get together soon!” And both parties know or suspect they don’t mean it. The occasion may be that friends are newly geographically separated. It may be said at a class reunion or church. But it never materializes. This never-happening wishful thinking is just idle talk because we have no habit of putting hands and feet behind what we say.

Proverbs 15:28 (ESV) The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer…

Perhaps the most hurtful time to hear from a friend “Let’s get together soon” is in time of grief. Then, or soon thereafter, we realize they didn’t mean it and we may even become offended.

Those of us that are alone in a grief crisis might cut our friend some slack. Some people just do not handle well any reminder of grief or loss. A friend’s lack of follow-through may say more about what’s going on in their life than anything going on in mine! We should ASK for what we need.

Those of us who are trying to comfort the grieving should not utter promises that we don’t keep.

1. Give it some thought ahead of time. What are you going to say to those that have loss in their life and are struggling and grasping for hope that things will get better?

2. Put hands and feet to your words and schedule this action on your master calendar. (Ours is affixed to the front of the refrigerator.) Buy a card and write down a memory to share with the family. Mail it. Do something tangible. Take that friend out to lunch.

3. Get out of your comfort zone now and then.  A lot of people are extremely uncomfortable visiting the funeral home. Make a commitment to yourself that you will go anyway!

Let’s get together, yeah yeah yeah. Will we do it?