Reflection: The Countless People Who Come and Go in Our Lives
People often talk about things like "friends for life" and "love that lasts forever," but on the opposite side of that coin... how many people float in and out of our lives, in the course of a few decades?
Granted, I probably notice this more because I have rounded sixty years of age, and thus have some mileage under my belt.
This weekend, I found myself searching for my actual physical Social Security card... something most people are unlikely to need to lay their hands on unless they are applying for something government related. Which I was. Or rather, Mrs. Denmarkguy was.
Yes, I found it... but as part of that search, I also found all manners of other old personal paperwork... including an address book that dated back a long time. Maybe you're old enough to remember the days when people actually kept paper address books... complete with scratched out names and changed addresses and what have you.
Looking at the names was quite a trip down memory lane... realizing (among other things) how many of these people have passed away, and how many of them were pretty awesome people with whom I simply lost touch, as a consequence of a sequence of moves.
As I looked at the names, it was a bit like having an "archeological dig" through various periods of my life... so many names dating to the years after the first Mrs. Denmarkguy and I parted ways and I spent a few years working in the IT industry before committing 100% to self-employment.
Seeing some of the names was rather bittersweet... a couple of guys I used to play golf with; a couple of women I had somewhat short relationships with... and more that a few people where the names seemed quite familiar, but no matter how hard I tried I just could not conjure up a face to put with them.
A few memories a little disturbing, even as I realized that I have three relatively close family members — a cousin a cousin who moved to Australia, a cousin in Denmark, and a 2nd cousin in Denmark — who committed suicide. I sat quietly, for a moment, contemplating the fact that each was a good friend, and that each was rather a lot like myself, personality wise. In their own ways, each took their own life because they felt like the world was "too rough and violent" for them to navigate.
I totally get where they were coming from...
Relics; at the very end of the address book, a tattered folded sheet of paper with a series of rather cryptic passwords that open encrypted files of some of my early journals and writing, written in Microsoft Word for Windows 3.0 (about 1990!), written on my IBM PS-50 personal computer that I had at my first business.
It's a funny thing... the files still exist on a hard drive that's no longer spinning, and waiting for the day I can afford to have someone "scrape" it for useful data. Remember when a 30MB hard disk was considered large?
All those names... I still have contact with about 5-6 of those people; I am even married to one of them now (since 2003)!
Life is really very fleeting, so remember to enjoy it while you can... and tell the people you appreciate that you do appreciate them!
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? Have any old "relics" from the past around your house? Do they send you into thinking about the past? Ever wonder what happened to some of the people in your old address books? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20210914 23:05 PDT
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