I have seen this happen many times as a military brat...
two friends, separated by distance, and occasionally many years in foreign
countries.. resulting in VERY serious difficulties "catching up".. at
times to the point of friendships being torn apart.
In my experience, it was those friends of mine that had been through a
similar situation in the past that had an easier time adjusting to long
absence... and, similarly, towns that were primarily military oriented
were easier to "drop back into" rather quickly.
In the case of being away from an environment/friend/family that never
knew how to drop back in, it took a "separating event"... getting the
family or friend out of their environment.. on vacation or such, so that
stories could be told on late nights, or over dinner, and when everyone
re-entered (after the "time away") the environment, things would be
smoother (as the family would be a sort of intermediary to the events...)
Basically the returned-to and the returnee de-briefed each other, and then
the returned-to could then play intermediary ("remember what I told you
about such-and-such, well here's a perfect example...")
I find that after the "away" time everyone will fall into these roles.
You just have to make sure that everyone can re-attune in a neutral
environment away from the day-to-day preferrably socially, and then all
re-enter together.
Bit by bit we change, even two weeks can make a different... it is in
thinking that someone is the same that causes us to stumble. Try walking
up to your spouse, before the kiss and say "hi, I'm so-and-so, what's your
name?", and meet them all over again-ask them to lunch, and have a talk.
(plus it may win you points romantically!!)
mike
--"Johnson, Mike" <MJohnson@deltabtg.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>