Sunday, October 18, 2015

Wondering

"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened."
                            ~Cora Harvey Armstrong


Sometimes I do wonder what happened.  I wonder how the years have flown by so quickly. How my little nephew is now a corporate executive in his forties, a father of two.  Or how the talented teacher I helped hire not that long ago has been retired for a few years now.  Or how an actor that I haven't seen for awhile is suddenly so....old.  (Like Nick Nolte in A Walk in the Woods!)  Or how I see my mother's face when I look in the mirror.  

Even though I understand that change is occurring more frequently than when I was a youngster and that technology and the explosion of information are driving that speed, I can still be taken back for a few moments when someone doesn't recognize the singers of my childhood - Perry Como? The Four Lads? Rosemary Clooney - was she related to George? I find the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars increasingly saddening as I watch the actors and actresses of my youth disappearing and knowing, as I watch, that there are generations who do not know much, if anything, about them.  Or that they seem to know so little about the movements and events that have shaped this culture and the individuals and groups who initiated them.  Sometimes not even recognizing their names.  Jonas Salk, Bobby Kennedy,  Barry Commoner, Betty Friedan, Edward R. Morrow - or the SDS or Joseph McCarthy.

So, although I still occasionally wonder, I am not surprised when I hear a young woman with some disdain proclaim that she is not a feminist.  Or listen to some politicians speak so easily, too easily,  about sending young men and women to war.  It is not that I feel old at these times, I feel sad.  I feel like an observer, not a participant.  Could it be that folks who lament the good old days, whether young or old, are lamenting the familiar?  Not that those days were better, but that at least they were familiar.

It is, therefore, with great gratitude that I find myself in this sweet community of St. George. Recognized recently in Consumer's Report and Money Magazine as one of the best locations for retirees, I find myself among other seniors who do remember, who share some similar values, and who also wonder.


Note:  If you have been following this new blog, please note the addition of a new gadget for signing on as a follower.  Apparently the two previous gadgets do not achieve that end.  Good thing that I enjoy learning!