Memories
of Christmas
“Memories
Light
the corners of my mind.
Misty
watercolor memories
Of
the way we were…”
Jonathan
David Buck (“The Way We Were”)
People
of a certain age will remember this song from the movie of the same name,
starring Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford. The song was first recorded by
Streisand in 1973, which was a year for dreamy movies and dreamier songs. It
came up in my waking this morning and has continued to play in my head. As
always, I wonder what that’s all about.
I think
this season—whether we celebrate Hanukkah or Christmas—is a time of year for
memories. We remember past holidays and who we were with and whether those were
happy times or not. One of my Christmas memories is being asked to marry my
boyfriend and having a tiny diamond ring placed on my hand. I was all of 19, a
sophomore in college. He was 21 and headed to the Air Force after graduation. The
year was 1966, and the Vietnam War was ramping up. That decision to marry so
young and begin a seven-year trek of moving base to base and experiencing life for
the first time outside the green quilt of Appalachia changed the trajectory of
my life. For that I am forever grateful.
Another
verse in “The Way We Were” is:
“Can
it be that it was all so simple then?
Or
has time rewritten every line?
If
we had the chance to do it all again,
Tell
me, would we?
Could
we?”
When I
look back, I realize how simple life seemed when I was young. How clear and
unambiguous were the questions and decisions, taken in a moment. In our youth,
we don’t have enough life experience to know what’s ahead and that’s a good
thing—if we did, we’d probably hide and cry. When we’re young, we simply jump in
with both feet—we take on whatever comes our way without the slightest doubt
that we can do it. We don’t know that there is so much we don’t know. And that’s
how we accrue life experiences—we run, we fall, we get up and go again. In the
process, we learn the lessons we need to learn. Sometimes they hurt and sometimes
they make us happy. We become more reckless or more cautious. We become more philosophical
or just bitter. We may rejoice in our life or regret it. As for me, I have a
few regrets; but mostly gratitude. I’m grateful to have lived as long as I have,
and I look forward to whatever comes next. I read a quote recently by Mark
Twain that said: “Do not complain about growing old. It is a privilege
denied to many.”
Here’s
wishing you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and blessing of the winter.
Stay warm and make merry—the world needs as much joy as it can bear.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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