Yearning for Our "Old" Norm

 This is the time of the year when we start thinking about the new year coming up. Just saying 2022 is as if one is talking about the distant future. 55 years ago, I pictured life in 2022 like the Jetsons lived. Certainly by now, we would having flying cars and robotic maids. (Well, thanks to Hazel, at least one of those is true.)

But rather than go to the future, I find we are more likely looking back to the past for comfort. Remember the days when one could visit anyone anywhere with no concern over vaccinations and masks? Think of the family holiday get-togethers when our only trepidation was Uncle Howard showing up, three sheets to wind telling his very inappropriate jokes about the fairer sex and politics.

As I age, I long for the family Christmas dinners of years past. The one with my mother's family that was always a great time. My brother and I got to see our cousins and run free through my grandparents' rambling home. As a younger child, it was Christmas on their farm in Marlboro County. My memories of those holidays were of a dining room table covered with dishes of wild game my grandfather brought home, and all the other familiar foods of a holiday dinner. Thankfully the distant memories of those days are well documented on the home movies my father took. 

Christmas dinner on my Daddy's side was a whole different ball game. My brother and I were the only grandchildren, and according to my Aunt Kat and Granny, we could do no wrong. This visit was always a quiet affair until Auntie (my 300 pound Great Aunt) showed up with her ever present pack of Salem cigarettes and off colored stories. Then the fun really began.

Those years until now seem like a movie reel that is running at reckless speed - way too fast. As we age time really does go by faster. (I wrote a post about that phenomenon a while back.) Just when we are mature enough to appreciate every minute of everyday, we find they passing at lightening speed. 

This year I only yearn for our "old" norm - days when we will no longer be confined by a pandemic. Now I am frustrated by the knowledge that this could quickly go back to that normal if more of the country's population would get vaccinated. But, I digress. 

Once again, I am looking backwards to get to the future, hoping time slows down, and trying to enjoy every day before it slips away. 

 

Times Moves on, Faster and Faster

 Am I  getting older, or is time really flying? Here we are at the end of August and my head is still getting through March. I read an article last month about how time actually does move faster as we age. The theory (or truth) being that as a young child we only have so many memories to deal with, only so many experiences to compare the events of each day to. As we age that number of life events, memories, and experiences expands - exponentially. Therefore as an older adult we mentally compare any given day's events to those many (many) thousands of days we have experienced in the past. 

Every minute, every hour, every day, and every week becomes just one of tens of millions of minutes and many ten of thousands of hours and days in the memory of our life. Where as in a 12 year old's mind there are multiple times fewer to moments to compare. 

Well, that explains a lot - I think. It took me a while to contemplate this concept. Does this mean that someone who has lived a very exciting and memorable life experiences an accelerated feeling of time moving on? Or in the case of a hermit who sees few people, rarely goes any where, or vary from a daily schedule - does he (or she) find time crawls by?

This begs to ask, when we are encouraged to live large, grab the brass ring, and make the most of our days are we scurrying toward the end at a more reckless pace?