Remember When?

There are moments in which I am reminded of the passage of time, and the increasing speed with which this occurs as I get older. Remember when the world seemed pretty much the same to you when you were age 10 as when you were 9? And then when you were 12? Sure your body and your friends may have been different, but the world was essentially the same. The same actors were hot. The same bands were cool. The same man was President. This summer, I realized the world was essentially different. This began with the death of Michael Jackson. So much of my childhood involved idolizing him. My younger brother used to 'dance' like Michael for the rest of my family in our living room and he always thought we were laughing because he was so good at dancing. But reality was he was just so damn funny trying to be MJ. Patrick Swayze died today. One summer, my sister and I made it a point to watch Dirty Dancing everyday. I'm not sure why, it was just something we had to do. Chevy Chase is playing a part in a new TV show premiering this Fall. Again, the Vacation and Fletch movies have singlehandedly allowed my brother and sister and I to have conversations composed entirely of movie quotes. Now Chevy looks like a puffy, squinty-eyed, snow-haired version of himself. Barely. But in a good way.

When those figures who defined your youth are gone, is your youth gone too? And if it is, did you send it off with fantastic fanfare? Or did you let it trickle away like the bathwater through a hair clogged drain? Call a friend or a brother or a sister. Play the 'remember when' game. If for nothing else than to celebrate that while the world is changing, the best things remain the same.