I remember having conversations with my grandmother about time when I was still in my teens. She shared how, as you get older, memories and their place in time start to merge together. “Sometimes, things that happened fifty years ago seem like they occurred just yesterday,” she told me. “And events that happened a few days ago feel like something from the distant past.”
I
had no real reference for what my grandmother told me. After all, ten years
earlier, I was pulling the petals off flowers just to be a brat and running my
toy trucks off imaginary cliffs. Now that I am roughly the same age my
grandmother was when we had our discussions about time, I understand.
My
memories have merged together. The events and memories registered in my mind no
longer fall on a timeline in an orderly or logical fashion. Everything has
jumbled and scrunched together. This is especially true of anything that
occurred from the late 1980s until now. Furthermore, events with a frame of
reference involving my house seem like a solid block—a singularity, if you
will.
And,
yes, it seems like only yesterday my grandmother and I sat in her kitchen
talking about how weird time is.
—Mitchell
Hegman
Very interesting! I don’t see it that way yet. On the other hand I do see a lot of clarity in my own motivations or lack there of (not good English I know, but quite a nice old cliche).
ReplyDeleteCase in point - I never spent a long time with grandparents. I did before my mother kidnapped me, but those are only vague memories, and only met my mother’s dad once. The clarity comes when discussing my own lack of connection to my grandchildren. I maintain a close relationship to my own children, but almost none on my side with my grandchildren. I just never grew up knowing my grand parents, so I never learned how to be a grandparent. Now, my kids definitely got to know and live with their grandparents, and in a way I’m kind of jealous about that. On the gripping hand my children don’t understand why I’m just not that close to their children when their children seem to adore me. I’m flattered, but confused by that.
Yours, relationship with your grandparents is way different for certain, especially since I spent my preteen and teen years living with mine. My conversations with my grandparents provided me with a new perspective on a lot of things. I am not sure how I would be as a grandparent. That one was not in the cards.
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