Thursday, June 26, 2008

Shaping the Grand Canyon

This week, work has taken me on travels into some old stomping grounds. It is interesting to renew old acquaintances and see old faces. That's the problem though. They remind me that it has been 15 years since I last saw some of them. A lot can change in 15 years.

Time has a way of getting away from us. We are so focused on daily activity -- of pursuing our lives -- that we lose track of the passage of time. It's like going to a High School class reunion and wondering why everyone else has aged so much. You still feel the same and don't notice that you've aged along with them. We see the gradual change in our own lives and accept it easily. Absence for extended periods makes that change seem dramatic when we reconnect.

Our lives move inexorably forward. If we weren't such ephemeral beings in our earthly time it would be as though the Grand Canyon was being carved upon our very substance. Slowly, unceasingly, we would be re-shaped into something unrecognizable to our previous self. I wonder if the process continues into eternity?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd love to live long enough to find out, but it ain't likely.

Barbara Martin said...

We learn during each lifetime, and yes, the process does continue into enternity.

i beati said...

I'm 20 you know...

on-the-rocks said...

The first time I really noticed the issue of aging was after I had gone away to college (200 miles from home) and especially after I went to grad school (1400 miles from home). After I got settled into undergrad college and didn't go back to visit but once every couple of months or so, I noticed how old my parents looked.

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