What is it now....over 50 years since what the good bard termed our " salad days"? Are we relegated to discussing our respective aches, pains and non-functioning parts whilst we face our personal dustbins in what at the most be 20 years (if we are that lucky or unlucky) left of our lives?
Most of us that are left have at one time or another asked for meaning. Those lucky enough have come to terms with the past can see the future through the eyes of our children, grandchildren, others have found faith and comfort with their individual beliefs.
I for one have been striving to put past wrongs, insults that I have endured and also have been guilty of, in the category of inconsequential in the greater scheme of things. They are not very important in the long run
By now all of us have had parents, family and friends, people we have served with,pass on ,and realize that we are next in the "turnstile" so to speak.
My daughter has asked me to write and record my voice for my grandchildren . Asked me to tell of ancient stories of the family.
To retell as to how Joseph Stalin starved my grandparents to death in the Ukraine.
Tell how the Nazis took my mother away as slave labour ending in the Mauthausen concentration camp towards the end of WWII.
To tell of my father,their great grandfather, was a Nazi Waffen SS officer, who was useful to both MI6/CIA in their Cold War operations in the 1950's in Eastern Europe.
Should they know of these things? Should I tell my daughter and grandchildren what joy I felt at their coming into this world?
What wisdom can I at this time in my life, offer to help them cope with what seems to be an even more dangerous and problematic world that our generation (you and I gentlemen) bequeath them?
I am now retired, have read more books than most of us have had hot dinners. I seem to forget their plot lines ( and that applies to films also) because I have seen and read it all before, it is just that the actors and characters have all been replaced.
I still rant and rail at people who are mean to other people, and yes I will if my achy bones allow, leap upon the barricades to protest against evil. (Those that live in certain parts of the world will understand).
So Mike, let us exchange information on nostrums such as Viagra, blood-pressure medications, for our cholestrol ( I remember with great fondness the bread and dripping sandwiches that my mum used to make). Compare our fading eyes, flaccid skin and other things flaccid, aching bones and things that no longer work and we are left with two options:
(1) " Rage, rage against the dying light"
or
(2) " That old soldiers never die, they just fade away.
I would be interested to read what other members of this site have to say and how they justify their own individual pasts...if there are any left besides us two.
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