It's coming up to 2 years since I moved to Oxford. As I've said elsewhere, living in a city is very different to living in rural Gloucestershire. It has taken me till now to get everything done to the house that I needed to. Given that this house is only 8 years old, I'm surprised at how much I have had to do. But it's my home, not an investment & doing the work now hopefully I'll get the benefit of the improvements for longer. Having "projects" to manage also helped with the transition.
2015 is my 70th birthday year and my daughters 20th wedding anniversary. She is 47. Her twin boys are now 10. I've been a widow for 6 years.
Anniversaries are all about looking back, which I don't tend to do much. For one thing I have got such a bad memory. However I do think that reflection is a good thing. Otherwise what's the point of experience? Memories cover the whole spectrum from absolutely dreadful events to wonderful moments.
Human beings start as an empty sponge, full of holes. The holes get filled up with people and events which help to shape what we become. Every experience contributes to what we are now to some degree. We are all unique in every way.
The thing that bothers me about anniversaries is that people don't seem to learn from events. We commemorate important historical dates & personal experience for example, but we repeat the mistakes made. Over and over again......
Two things need to go together, remembering and commemorating, learning and improving. Until we get that right I can't see the point of Anniversaries. If they had had newspapers in the "Dark Ages" I bet a lot of todays headlines would have been exactly the same. The same petty quarrels & self interest. The same cruelty and tenaciously grasping at power & territory.
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