Saturday, January 1, 2011

A New Decade—Again!

When did it first occur to me that everything repeats? I can tell you that my six-year-old granddaughter acknowledged her awareness of this fact the second week of school this past September when she announced, while we were walking through the schoolyard, that everyday was the same: get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, walk to school, then walk back home again, play, do homework, eat dinner, go to bed….and then do it all over again, every day! I guess I was probably about the same age, about the time I first realized that I was going to be with myself on the day I die (this thought hit me between the eyes while reciting the flag salute one morning in first grade). Knowing that events like Christmas replay regularly every 12 months is one thing, but watching the other 11 months fly by faster each year is another—and by now, I have decided to place the holiday storage boxes in a more convenient location in the garage because I’ll soon be getting them back in the house as regularly as I fill out my grocery list.

Therefore, considering New Year’s Eve/ New Year’s Day is happening with equal regularity, I wonder what to do in the way of preparedness—since I have no tangible storage for the passage of time. Where does the time go—such a cliché! Famous people who died this year—I was shocked at how old some of them were, the teen-idols of my youth who were ageless in my mind.

Well, this phenomenon has been going on for centuries. Everything repeats! And so do we—over and over again we celebrate, we clean, we decorate, we cook, we shop, we endure….sometimes we do it exactly the same, sometimes we modify. The faces change, along with the fads, but otherwise it is exactly like last time. Even our resolutions to do it better, to change, to refresh, to basically become a different person—those resolutions repeat!

I am beginning to wonder if this is a test—how many times will it take for us to figure it out? And what will we conclude when we do? It occurs to me that the most enviable of us are those who haven’t figured it out yet, who still approach things with excitement, wonder and anticipation. I think I will do myself a favor and do a brain-wash; I am going to hunker down with my youngest grandchild—who is three and a half months old now—and see it all through his eyes. This should get me through the next six years or so, with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.