Facebook has a way of reminding you of the past. Those of you that use it, get the occasional pop up which shows you one of your posts from 1 or 2 or 5 years ago, with the breif headline, your memories. Ingenious really, other than your name spoken by a loved one, is there anything in the world more precious than a memory? Facebook is truly the world's greatest time suck, we all know this, however, the juice is often worth the squeeze.
A trip down memory lane can solve a crisis, brighten the darkest day, and quite possibly be, one of the greatest gifts we share with each other as humanoids. Memories don't happen unless you are in the moment.
The last time I enjoyed a Sean Penn performance, he played Spicoli, a classic character from the historical literary work of art, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. My favorite line, he asked Mr Hand, "If I am here, and you are here, doesn't that make it, our time?" This weekend, I enjoyed some "our time".
I witnessed a wonderful wedding between two perfect puzzle pieces that happily fell off the table, landed connected, are now glued together, and fit so perfectly, you wondered if Hasbro plans to stop making puzzles now.
I attended a Packer Family night with my girls, where 76,000 people paid to watch a football team practice and scrimmage themselves, followed by a laser and fireworks show set to a mix of old, new, country, and rap music. I was asked by my youngest when the "lasers" we're going to start, and she reminded me that last year, I told her that she had to be careful because some lasers can chop your head off. I didn't catch her ducking during the show, but I did get a few eager glances of wonder when a 200' helmet magically appeared in the center of the field with green streams of light emanating from the perimeter of the stands.
So today, as I woke up and the memories of "our time" this weekend trickled through my groggy brain, I popped open the world's greatest time suck ever invented next to Pokemon, and the photo above trickled across my screen as a memory. I remember vividly the day we took this photo. My wife and I disagreeing as she started pulling over along the side of the road. Me protesting that we didn't need any more photos that day. I recall grumpily setting my children on top of a cart of pumpkins, hoping they wouldn't crush them and force me to buy the whole lot of them from guilt, or that my children wouldn't jump off the trailer and run away. I remember being nervous the farmer might come running out of his house hollering, perhaps not finding my children on his cart as cute as my wife found it to be. I remember gradually smiling as I noticed my youngest's ears dangling happily away from her noggin, and along with her smile and eyes, betraying the orb as a child's face and not just another vegetable stacked on the cart. I remember posting the photo as a happy thanksgiving note to my friends. I remember smiling when I saw how lucky I was to have my 2 beautiful children. I remember thinking I should apologize for being grumpy about taking the photo.
The reminder this morning was a bit more than a photo, it was Mr Hand being stumped from the comment.
Make sure you are there so it really is "our time"
Being present is a present and the memory is the gift that keeps on giving
Sean Penn should have quit after Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Enjoy!
BVD
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