-Year End Meanderings
The end of this year is rapidly approaching and the New Year is bamming at the proverbial door and it’s presence and demand for attention is looming. And I also have many thoughts that are emerging and also demanding a bit of my attention…for instance…
Being labeled senior citizen in our society is akin to being placed at the front of an Amtrak ticket line that’s traveling too ‘Destination Final Resting Place’. Oh…such a cruel circumstance that we are expected to accept, when in fact most of us are approaching that High-Point in our lives. We have literally become ‘Reservoir Foxes’…lil life-nuggets brimming with years of happenings stored in our personal data bases just waiting for an opportunity to share.
But, guess what, I am hesitant but nonetheless proud too admit that I am a ’silver surfer’, a quite gray granny…a seasoned n’ proud mom. And with the obvious years of life that goes along with those distinctive attributes there are also many other bonus’s that my years here have produced. For instance, during my stint here, I have witness radio programs evolve to TV, and console style radio’s shrink to hand-held portable models and from that to wafer thin models the size of a credit card that’s capable of storing 1000’s of songs. Telephone have become small, mobile, and owned by children that are not even able to ‘foot the expense’ of that ownership. I can make my own movies and music and share the results with my family and friends. I have lived thru the emergence of Atari, Slinky and BarBie.
I have shared the same airspace and time line with such remarkable notables as Pope John XXIII, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa, Princess Di, Linus Pauling, and Jimmy Carter…
I know of atrocities that were committed that didn’t make the ‘front page editions’ but were nonetheless horrific and were probably only chronicled in the police archives…stories that would curl your blood…not fiction, or a figment of my imagination but real crimes committed against in most cases undeserving people.
I have seen accidents and near accidents that are as vivid today as it was when it occurred years ago. And I am sure my true life recollections pale in comparison to what other have seen and done, read about or were told about, were the victims or just barely escaped an incident. We ’so called ole folks’ are store houses of facts, situations, solutions, suggestions…and you would think this upcoming generation would knock our doors down too graze on these many tidbits and morsels of info that we would love to share for free. But noooo…these youngin’s think they know it all or they think they are too busy to spend a little time listening or they see us as ‘out of touch’ with the times.
Oh well, their loss…sure there is much we don’t know…especially when it comes too the challenges posed by this technological stampede that’s bombarding our day to day lives. But we do know life…simply because we have already lived it.
Yalls loss…because unbeknownst to the emerging ‘movers and shakers’ of this generation…I am not down n’ out. I…we are entering a new season…a much more enlightened season and I for one plan too tap into those years of real-life school’n too make this a truly brilliant and meaningful episode in my life. It’s not a start over, it’s just another ‘leg’ of my journey.
So although we must say goodbye to 2008, it really isn’t gone…because all it’s events will always remain with me, with us…our children and theirs. Nothing is ever really lost as long as there is a record of it’s passing somewhere.
And I look forward to this new year, another page of history that will be bursting with a staggering numbers of events: from births … graduations … re-locations … new business owners throwing open their doors for the first time … and an odd piece of land re purposed for a park … an old building restored … an injured animal saved by a passing stranger … a young tot’s first ice skating lesson … and to the farmers whose home and land are finally producing a profit and things are finally looking up…
Happy New Year’s Eve To All
