A matter of time

Me at 72 and 22

What a difference fifty years makes! A while back I compiled this so that I could ask friends if they could tell that this is the same person, separated by fifty years. Nope. Even my dear partner couldn't tell it was me. Or maybe especially him, because he never knew me when I was young. We met at fifty and by that time, although my hair had not yet turned white, I was definitely no longer looking like that pretty ingénue.

I've been thinking about how much has changed in that half century. Our language, for one thing, is now filled with phrases and words that made no sense back then, such as "google" or "landline." A watch was just a watch, not analogue or digital, and our phones were all connected to the wall, so the word "landline" would have made no sense. Nowadays, landlines are definitely on their way out. When we moved here a decade ago, we discussed whether we should get a landline along with our cellphones, and we decided against it. Although there are still landlines, I never call one and our smartphones are so much more than just a phone. There's another one: "smartphone." What in the world would I have made of that word in 1965?

Most people don't even wear watches any more. I do, because I really like to look down at my left wrist and know the exact time, without having to pull out my phone. But I use my phone for so much more than telling time or making a phone call. It's also my camera, alarm clock, step counter, calculator, news source, and gives me a way to check my mail. When I was that young woman, I remember once watching a TV show about the future, and there was a concept that in fifty years we would all be wearing a Dick Tracy-type wristwatch that would allow us to talk in person to each other, and guess what? Now we can do exactly that with our smartphones. Gracious!

It's also becoming obvious that many of the phrases I grew up with are becoming obsolete. What about clockwise or counterclockwise? Are those going away as people move away from analogue clocks? Or how about telling someone about where your hands should be on the steering wheel at 10 and 2? Does that even mean anything to someone in his or her twenties? My goodness, I am now sounding like my grandmother, lamenting the passage of time. But time is not a thing that passes, it's a sea on which we float. (Margaret Atwood)

I have been floating on this sea long enough to look like a wrinkled prune. That's it! I just figured out how I can look like that young woman again, just get out of the sea. No, that won't do, because then I'd be dead. The notion of time is simply fascinating, and old photographs and memories remind me that it's an equal opportunity concept: nobody alive escapes its passage. Some might be able to appear younger with lots of lotions and potions and plastic surgery, but they are still floating on that same sea along with me.

Speaking of time, I have a week before I travel to Florida to be with my sister and nephew for a winter vacation. Since it's getting close, I spend lots of time thinking about what I'll need to take along, how to survive the journey of two long days, one going and one returning. I'm looking forward to being there but not to the travel. There was a time when I loved airports and journeying from one place to another, but not any more. Not only am I older, but now we are like cattle being herded into crowded pens, no longer treated with special care. Unless I could travel first class (which I cannot afford), it's something to be endured rather than enjoyed. No matter; I'll be in sunny and (hopefully) warm Florida! Norma Jean told me they just had two hard freezes in a row, and some of the palm trees turned brown and look dead, while others are unaffected. I'll try to take some pictures to capture the damage.

Mostly I'll be spending the time keeping up with my active sister: swimming first thing every morning in the outdoor pool and then walking a few miles to get weight-bearing exercise. She and I are the two active siblings, and it does sometimes make me wonder why it's just the two of us in a family of six who exercise daily. Whatever the reason, I'm glad we share a love of activity and will be together for a little more than a week to play in the sunshine and enjoy a glass of wine together in the evenings.

This past week one of my favorite authors died at the age of 88: Ursula K. Le Guin. She has written many sci-fi novels that I enjoyed enough to reread several of them. The New York Times wrote an obituary that tells of her many talents. She also wrote wonderful essays and recently released her latest collection, which I have on order from the library, No Time to Spare. And I found this quote from her (from The Dispossessed), that sums up this post with perfect symmetry:

Well, we think that time "passes," flows past us, but what if it is we who move forward, from past to future, always discovering the new? It would be a little like reading a book, you see. The book is all there, all at once, between its covers. But if you want to read the story and understand it, you must begin with the first page, and go forward, always in order. So the universe would be a very great book, and we would be very small readers.

She lived a good life and left behind a legacy through her writing that will be loved and appreciated for generations to come. She is no longer floating on the sea but has joined it, as we all will one day. Until that time (there's that word again), I'll be enjoying my Sunday mornings with my virtual pals, and with my dear husband sleeping beside me. Next week I'll still be here with him, but the following week I'll be in Florida and sitting in another bed writing this post. Until we are together again next week, I wish you all good things and especially hope that you will be well.