Yesterday morning I noticed that my friend, Bob, had wished his daughter a happy 45th birthday. He mumbled a couple of things about entering into the world of parenthood 45 years ago and that parenthood was still great to this day.
A week ago a blogging friend did a piece where part of it included a picture of her with her infant son, a son who left her and this world all too soon at the age of 40.
I was fortunate enough to be 68 years old when my Dad died. I had told Dad that I wanted a Dad until I was 70.
All of these examples are about the passage of time. With the passage of time there are losses. We lose our youth. We lose our children. We lose our parents. In some ways we lose the past as it dims and disappears.
With my friend with the 45 year old daughter I couldn't help but comment that back when his daughter was born he was Mr. tall dark and handsome. His daughter got a big chuckle over my comment. I started to think of why she would think the comment humorous. When I first met her Dad he was in his late 20's with some gray hair on the temples. He was a lanky dude who was very active. His daughter obviously does not remember him in that way. By the time she would make memories of her Dad he would have changed physically.
DJan, the blogger, often writes about her lost son. DJan looked at the picture and could vividly remember her lost son and it brought back good memories of him. What she felt most about the picture was to look at herself and feel that she could hardly recognize herself. The photo was one that she had not seen before so to see it was a shock.
As I was reaching rather ancient milestones and visiting my Dad I could see that the wheels were turning in his head. On one of his birthday cards I told him that on my next birthday I would be sixty-five. My step mother told me that he sort of shook his head and thought about it and then said, "You know Red's and old man!" My stepmother thought the comment hilarious and so did I. It must be hard for a man to watch his son grow to be old.
All of these situations occur as time passes. Our memory of the past dims and the situations we pass through modify our perception of our past. It's interesting to visit with my brother and compare the memories we have of the same things. We are less than a year apart so we were there for the same things. Sometimes we refresh each others memory of incidents we experienced.
Alvin Toffler in Future Shock has an excellent section on time and how humans think about time. Toffler goes back and shows how we began measuring time which then posts landmarks in our lives. Toffler also dealt with our perception of time and how it alters as we age.
So these three situations just happened to come together and get me thinking about time. This coming from a guy who never wears a watch.
How do you feel about the passage of time? Does it intrigue you? Does the passage of time make you feel happy or sad? I hope that everybody fully enjoys the passage of their life and the experiences they have.
