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RE: Road Trip Day 16 or so: The Nashville Area and the Hardness in Sadness

in #life2 years ago

Enjoyable read. Made me think a bit though. Perhaps as people get older, they like to keep those memories alive, because they're thinking a lot about seeing them again, knowing that time could be getting closer. I've heard old stories before, quite often. No matter how heartbreaking it was for them at the time, they seem excited, in a sense, about something. And I suppose thinking of the past when there's a long history would be far more healthy than worrying about the future. Something like that...

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because they're thinking a lot about seeing them again

I wonder that too. I know she has a very long prayer list for the living, and I imagine keeps a log of those she would like to see on the other side. At 93, that is a long log. It is hard for me to imagine that after 82 years (she was 11 when her sister passed away) that you could remember someone very well. I suppose it depends on the person. Or maybe only the most poignant things stick like quick video images - an unusually shaped smile, or a particular smell. She seems to remember a lot about her though, and it is amazing.

No matter how heartbreaking it was for them at the time, they seem excited, in a sense, about something

Yes, even when there is sadness in the memory itself, they seem to feel no sadness in telling it. There is happiness in storytelling, for sure. I guess that's why I am doing it right now. It feels good to dwell on a moment in life, when life is so fleeting. I've got this one captured, and now it can't disappear into the past.

Their minds dealt with far fewer distractions and a lot more focus on the moment. People today are bombarded; sensory overload. Easy to lose the memories in all the chaos. We drive fast as everything zips past; they drove slow to enjoy the show. So yeah, it's good to take a moment for yourself; give yourself something to remember.

True. Stimulation. Everything new was a big deal to my grandmother's generation. There was so much that was shocking. Shocking is old hat to us.