I’ve always had one foot in the past.
History has fascinated me since I was a boy. The idea of old things captivated my imagination like nothing else. Particularly Dinosaurs, the remnants of which we still have in old fossils buried deep in the dirt, dug up with great care and reverence. That’s the right word, I think: reverence. We have a type of reverence for the past.
Tomorrow I’m going to interview an old woman. She’s 94, but very lucid and as vivacious as a 94 year old can be. A relative of a relative, I met her recently at the beach through the mutual relation. A lot of old people are very miserable, and I probably would be too if I were in their sunspotted cancerous skin. But not Mrs. C, she seems happy as can be.
My grandmother died two years ago. Another old woman, not nearly as old as Mrs. C. but much, much dearer to me than any old woman before her. I’d grown up on her stories of the past, especially as they relate to my family. What was it like growing up during the war? What was her grandmother like? How did my aunt get that scar above her lip? All of these moments taken out of time with care and reverence, like precious fossils frozen. Moments that I treasure, now that my portals to the past are closing up.
The older that you get, the faster they close. Old relatives and friends are beginning to die off..
The young are usually preoccupied with the trappings of youth; partying, girls or boys or both; self-discovery; having a grand old time not thinking much about death. All relatively important things, don’t get me wrong. Meanwhile the best years of the adults are drifting by. As we reach adulthood, or maybe closer to our thirties, we realize that our older relatives aren’t going to be here forever. Some of us may take the time to really get to know them at this point, not as we did as children, but now as equals.
You absolutely must speak to your older friends and relatives while you still can, record their thoughts and their stories. One day, if you’re lucky enough to still be around, they’ll be gone. poof Just like that, in an instant.