My Grandma Rainey always used a couple of anachronisms that now make sense to me as I've gotten older. She'd say my dad was born on “Armistice Day,” referring to Veterans Day when they disputed about his birth date because she insisted that his birth certificate actually listed the wrong date for his birth. (She ultimately went and had the birth certificate legally corrected to win the argument. He was born on Armistice Day!) And on this Memorial Day weekend, I now remember that she always used the term “Decoration Day,” which was the name for Memorial Day until she was 50 years old. That’s actually not a crazy thing to say, but I remember thinking it was at the time.
Growing up in my house, we had an icebox to keep the food cold, but it actually wasn’t an icebox. It was a refrigerator, but the old names for things sometimes take a while to be discontinued from use. Somewhere along the way, I stopped using “icebox” but I do not remember when. All I know is that I think we often look down on older people because they say things like that or other things that make them seem so out of touch. I am realizing how many things I say that relate to some event or song from the 1970s or 80s and this would suggest how close I am to becoming an out-of-touch person as well. To deal with these thoughts of my own obsolescence, I tell myself to “live in the moment” and forge ahead with my life, even though I have no idea what it practically means to live in the moment.
This train of thought came to roaring into my head because I read an article on pastries in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday entitled “How Great Thou Tart.” (Maybe I didn't actually read the article. I may have just read the title—I can't remember now.) I thought the title was brilliant, but wondered if it would resonate with younger people who may have no idea that the title plays on an old hymn of the church, “How Great Thou Art.” It seemed as I read the news on Memorial Day weekend that I was seeing my place in the world as one on the back side of the river of time, familiar with things that will be lost to the current younger generation.
I am quite concerned about the state of world affairs right now. I don't know if this is normal for people of a certain age or if things are really worse than they were in the 1980s when I graduated from high school. I have a feeling it is actually not necessarily worse. It’s just that we now know about every single thing that happens everywhere and I don't think this is healthy. But now that I have children coming of age, I want them to experience a good life with freedom to flourish in their lives as I have had opportunities to do so in mine. I guess on this Memorial Day weekend, I'm more aware of the changes in the world, the current conflicts, the struggles among nations and ideologies that have required men and women to serve and sacrifice. I am free today to sit by a peaceful stream in a public park and write these words on a steno pad. This is the fruit of sacrifice. This is freedom. Thank you to those who gave so much for our country.
Growing up in my house, we had an icebox to keep the food cold, but it actually wasn’t an icebox. It was a refrigerator, but the old names for things sometimes take a while to be discontinued from use. Somewhere along the way, I stopped using “icebox” but I do not remember when. All I know is that I think we often look down on older people because they say things like that or other things that make them seem so out of touch. I am realizing how many things I say that relate to some event or song from the 1970s or 80s and this would suggest how close I am to becoming an out-of-touch person as well. To deal with these thoughts of my own obsolescence, I tell myself to “live in the moment” and forge ahead with my life, even though I have no idea what it practically means to live in the moment.
This train of thought came to roaring into my head because I read an article on pastries in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday entitled “How Great Thou Tart.” (Maybe I didn't actually read the article. I may have just read the title—I can't remember now.) I thought the title was brilliant, but wondered if it would resonate with younger people who may have no idea that the title plays on an old hymn of the church, “How Great Thou Art.” It seemed as I read the news on Memorial Day weekend that I was seeing my place in the world as one on the back side of the river of time, familiar with things that will be lost to the current younger generation.
I am quite concerned about the state of world affairs right now. I don't know if this is normal for people of a certain age or if things are really worse than they were in the 1980s when I graduated from high school. I have a feeling it is actually not necessarily worse. It’s just that we now know about every single thing that happens everywhere and I don't think this is healthy. But now that I have children coming of age, I want them to experience a good life with freedom to flourish in their lives as I have had opportunities to do so in mine. I guess on this Memorial Day weekend, I'm more aware of the changes in the world, the current conflicts, the struggles among nations and ideologies that have required men and women to serve and sacrifice. I am free today to sit by a peaceful stream in a public park and write these words on a steno pad. This is the fruit of sacrifice. This is freedom. Thank you to those who gave so much for our country.