Looking tonight at some photos of friends my age, from their younger years. From the 1970's. Young people today (and even ourselves at times) tend to forget that we were young once ...... teenagers and twenty-somethings. Laughing and smiling, seemingly carefree, surrounded by friends, full of energy, hopes and dreams. They might look at an older person and be unable to visualize them at any other point in their life. Like that person has always been older. Like they never experienced a youth.
You look at these photos from forty-five years ago (almost yesterday) and the emotions and memories suddenly flash flood over you. I've always been extremely nostalgic but I'd be surprised to learn that these feelings are unique to just a few of us. Even the most hardened souls must feel it to some degree.
If I was musically talented, I might just write a song. I'm sure others have.
My parents likely had the same thoughts about my generation .... That we needed to remember that they weren't always older. That they had a past. Same goes for my parents, parents .... and likely every preceding generation. Even the pre-photograph technology generations.
There's something in all this that I can't really adequately express that explains why I enjoy movies from the 1940's and 50's. Though if there's a movie or two that really set this off for me it would be films like "Racing With the Moon" or "Almost Famous."
I don't know where this is going. I know there's no great revelation here in my thoughts. Just thinking about the cycle of life and all that. How a lifetime passes by so quickly. How you're just quietly going about your evening then some little trigger (like a half century old photograph) can set off a wave of emotions.
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