PRECIOUS MEMORIES

For the most part this blog deals with political events and current events. I try to offer opinions on pressing issues and generally create discussion. I hope I have been successful in that effort. Today, however, my mind is wandering back to an event from my past that re-emerged recently and has haunted me until I decided to write this piece. I hope this has value for you. It has for me.

 

Several years ago I was driving with my aunt, who at that time was a recent widow. I don’t remember where we were going or why, I just remember that we had gotten ourselves lost. When I finally decided that I didn’t know where I was, I brought up the matter with my aunt. I noticed that she was crying. I thought this is crazy. We are going to figure out where we are in a few moments and everything will be fine. As it turns out, that was not the reason why she was crying. 

 

She said “I used to get so mad at your uncle. It seemed every time we went driving, we would get lost. He would never prepare for a trip by checking a map and he wouldn’t stop and ask for directions. It used to just drive me crazy. Today though, I would give everything I own just to be lost with him one more time.” That comment stuck in my mind and as I said re-emerged recently. 

 

My aunt died a few years later and went on to join my uncle. Who knows why such events come back into one’s memory. Perhaps they are lessons we are taught that from time to time come back to us to help us along our life’s journey. I am sure we all have those experiences. 

 

Now that I am in my eighty-first year on this earth, I think of these things. How would my life be if I suddenly had to face it without my life partner? How important are those little irritants that are a part of life? Would they still be irritants? Or would they become precious memories?  Our lives become so fixed and in some ways mundane. We eat, sleep, and the next day do it all over again. We fret about our kids. We worry about the market. And the next day we do it all over again. The reality is that this is my life. These are the memories that will sustain me if I were suddenly alone. 

 

Some time ago I wrote a piece about living like you are dying. Don’t let a day go by that is wasted. You will never get to see it again. While it is easy to say, it becomes more of a challenge to live it. This is what I am going to do. I plan to live out my days with the understanding that all that is my life may well need to be the memories that sustain me later. Even the little irritants. I plan to hold those as precious memories. I hope you might do the same.

 

Ron Scarbro August 13, 2011; updated December 15, 2021