Marathon long phone calls. They're fun.
The one I had tonight was with an old flame from 25 years ago. Talk
about the internet and the ability to dig one another up.
What struck both of us, was the fact
that so much time has passed. Yet it feels, at the same time, that
it has been that long, and it hasn't at all. I think they call that
ambivalence.
We filled in each other about what has
happened to who, who's doing what and caught up with each other’s
lives. Some of the people I knew from back then came to worse ends,
some better, most the same. In each case though, the same personality
reigns, yet it is subdued some by age. From what I could tell, most
of us became smarter at life and bemoan the fact that “why didn't
we have this information” when it counted, when we were young.
Hence that old phrase, “Youth is wasted on the young.”
What you do during these calls is you
subconsciously compare and contrast your life to the ones you used to
know all those years ago. When you have a living witness to your
life from waaay back then, it helps jog the old memory of who you
were. When I hung up finally, I came away with the feeling of some
satisfaction. I did fairly well so far. This isn't schadenfreude,
where you secretly cheer the ugly ends and misery of another, but a
feeling of fulfillment. From where and when I started and to where I
find myself today, I've managed to nail a few of those dreams we have
when we were young.
“So, what do you think the next 25
years will bring..if we live?” I asked her.
“We get OLDER!” she laughs.
“Yeah, I can see myself sunning
myself, like a turtle on a rock, in Slater Park, half snoozing on a
bench, watching the kids catch their first fish. I'd then tell them
I caught a fish in the same pond in the ancient year of 1976 and
they'd never believe it!”
Once in a while, strange phone calls
from people I knew decades ago are great.
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