NOTHING BUT A SHADOW

NOTHING BUT A SHADOW

We’re very much in danger of disappearing, becoming lost, leaving nothing but a shadow behind.

“What’s he trying to say?”, you might ask, “Disappearing from what?”. Well, what I’m trying to say is that by embracing technology, writing emails, tweaking, etc, and not leaving a hard copy, a record for someone to find, we are not only in danger of disappearing, but have already begun the process. Think on it. You die, which we all will one day, and if you elected there may be a brief ceremony attended by a few, perhaps what remains of your family, a friend, or two, to gobble up the sandwiches and the free booze, mumble a few thoughts of their version of memories of your times together, whether true or not, then within a short time the memory of your being simply fades. You may think that you were important, after all you wrote books, made pictures, did all sorts of memorable things, but were they? Words written and saved in a book, regardless of what you might think, are not you. Words in a book belong to characters whose significance plays only to a story, the author only a name of no substance, and if no one buys the book, or when it goes out of print, even the name loses significance. So, no hard copies, no pages in a diary…………..

As to what caused this rant to surface? I’ve been downsizing, preparing for the inevitable…..life in a retirement home, you know, a room in a home with other older persons, and sharing meals in a commons dining room after a long day staring out the window thinking backwards, remembering , or trying to remember that time sitting by a lakeside, or another time paddling in choppy water on a northern lake. Preparing for a life unwanted I’ve been going through binders full of correspondence from friends of times long past. Some are gone, and some still bumble along, but through our correspondence I hear their voices, see their faces, share our thoughts and experiences, and from the pages they live on, and in these moments spent with ghosts I forget, and am me again.

Advice if any, write things down, keep a diary, or if you’re pressed for time, press print and save a copy, a memory to leave behind.