98th Birthday celebration

It is rare that people can live up to 98 and I therefore feel greatly priviledged to be invited to the birhtday celebration of an old man still active in society and community gathering especially the clannish associations.  Some friends told me that it is a waste of time to join the associations especially as many of these are clannish in nature and the stress is more on superficial interaction and feastings.  But I would not distance my self personally from such groups as I feel we as human beings are living as a group and so it is for quite a few the only chance of interaction with others.  Unless the association is illegal or doing anything harmful to the society, I would see no reason why we should desist from it. This old citizen has been a founder of the clannish association and was the first chairman.  He certainly has contributed a lot to the clan people and we should not deny him the happiness of the grand celebration of his 98th Birthday!