Last week, one of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning held its 40th year reunion. Members of the Class of 1974 left their corner offices, boardrooms, television studios, summer estates, and – yes – even their comfortably ordinary jobs and homes, to reconnect with old friends and classmates.
The climactic event of the reunion was a series of presentations rather misleadingly dubbed “The Eureka Moment!”. This was not the kind of Eureka moment experienced by Archimedes in the bathtub. Instead, members of this distinguished company vied with one another to present the most distressing, depressing, and often intimate episode of their lives. The format was eerily reminiscent of the old “Queen For a Day” television show, where contestants competed to see whose life was the most pathetic, with the winner receiving a slew of valuable prizes.
What led these successful people to participate in this strange event? Quite possibly, the same compulsions that made them successful in the first place. Continue reading