Wednesday, December 19th
I may or may not have solved my blog entry difficulty. Closer but, as the old adage goes “no cigar.” Where did that one come from I wonder. Does anyone know? Speaking of old, I find myself irresistibly drawn to the past, not mine but all of our pasts; to human history. There was a time in my own history when I couldn’t get enough of our ancient stories, but lately the draw is much closer to home; to the world wars in Europe and to my country’s roots in Europe. I wonder why the change in interest; I wonder why the interest at all. Do I look for something that isn’t in my world? Is it a compensation, and if so, what am I reaching for? A simpler time, a time of higher values, of working together for a cause, of families close to one another throughout their lives, not separated by hundreds or thousands of miles, for the sake of ambition; ambition for success in the world, for money, for things. Have we traded all that is truly valuable in life for things of far less value? I am becoming like my grandmother who, in the last 20 years of her life was famous for her stories of her parents and grandparents; of how they lived and the changes she’d seen in the 70 years she’d been alive. However, she didn’t complain about what the world had become, she accepted it, but she did keep the past alive for us and for that I’m grateful. I will try not to complain, but rather remember that nothing is ever lost but only needs to be ‘re-called’ to be drawn back into the light.
What would I re-call? Community working together, families in and out of one another’s lives, if not daily, then at least more often than the requisite yearly visit, most of all that our connections to one another are recognized as more important than anything else. I think that is the key one that I would recall. I remember years ago my eyes welling up as I watched families interacting in India with an ease and naturalness that I’d never experienced myself. How I longed to be known and to know others in such an intimate way where there was no thought as one reached an arm around another as to whether they would welcome it or if it was correct. Thoughtless intimacy is learned in infancy if it is learned at all.
Key word; intimacy. Recall intimacy please; that ease of connection that arises naturally. A friend once said “all infants deserve love.” A human right? No, I believe it is more a life right. All animals have it, what happened to the animal that we are?
