One of the nice things about being old and retired is that one can remember deeply without guilt. The young worry about what they should be doing next _ or instead of _ what they are actually doing. They try to control the future. Those of us with reduced futures can enjoy looking back.
Memory is a kind of “have your cake and eat it too” situation. I can experience adventure with all the thrills and spills without going anywhere. I can taste fabulous feasts and “bad” desserts without putting on weight. I can travel and work and, well, do anything at all, and still be right here.
When my conscious memory fails, there are always dreams which more and more involve people I had known or situations I had been in. It is interesting when I awake to match them up to what I think really happened. That memory, of course, is quite fallible. And malleable. What I sharply remember happening might not have happened that way at all, as I am often reminded by my wife, who experiences and remembers in her own unique way.
It’s a fabulous gift, this memory. I try to cultivate it as much as I can. it is usually a lot more fun and rewarding than scanning social media. Again, a happy function of becoming elderly.
So I remember the golden olden days, and if my conversation grows tiresome just ignore me.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 