“Golden Memories”

I find a common criticism of older people, that they (we if we are lucky) live in the past, quite silly.

First, the past is where our parents live/lived, our grandparents, our friends of youth. It is where we made life changing decisions, for good or ill. The past is where the world was new and exciting, sometimes frightening and terrifying, but secure because we lived through all that, and are viewing and reviewing from the distance of the future. The past is where our youth existed, for most of us our good health was taken for granted. The past was where the story was beginning, with seemingly infinite possibilities, the past is where we experienced agency. The past is where old people, all people, lived most of their lives. At a time in life when one experiences the ravages of age, and agism, the past, or a selected part of it, is far more appealing than anything the present could possibly offer.

And then there are those young people who are collecting memories. What good are memories but for visiting the past. Why collect memories if you aren’t going to enjoy their benefits in later years?

My most cherished memories are of connection with ordinary people, in ordinary contexts. They are memories of connecting to the profound mystery of the ordinary. Most closely related to this feeling of connection, for me, are the descriptions of earth written by some who have travelled to space.

I have been thinking about my “golden memories”. My friend Pat used to affectionately mock me for my “golden memories”. He had a point, the memories were heavily curated. Pat always affectionately reflected back to me what he saw of me, good and bad. I could trust his sincerity in this, implicitly.

Like gold, this hoarded currency of love, friendship, and experiences was, and is, my treasure. So many of the people with whom these memories were created have left the corporeal plane, or drifted into times and spaces that do not include me. Their distant glow lights the universe I live in, and will as long as life and memory allow.

My present is ordinary. I am cognizant that the future could bring a time when I will long for today. Until that time, I enjoy each of these days that come to me, walking the path forward, lit by the light of the past.

Worldly

Weather

22°C
Date: 2:00 PM EDT Monday 29 September 2025
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Humidity: 57%
Wind: S 21 km/h
Humidex: 24
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“I do not know which makes a man more conservative—to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.”
John Maynard Keynes
1883 – 1946