An Overdue Reunion

The announcement of his high school class’ fiftieth year reunion prompted the author to read a short story and an essay he had written in high school. He discovered considerable continuity between the themes with which the boy was preoccupied (especially hope but also wisdom and love) and his adult vocational interests and writings. Invoking John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1956) the author concludes that the high school boy who lives inside of him has been his faithful companion throughout the years. He also observes that the short story has proven prophetic because it tells about an old man in search of a young boy who appears to have found what both are searching for.