Friday, December 18, 2020

ode on intimations of immortality

 

We got the last of our Christmas cards sent out today.

 

Big woop, you might say.  You also might add that you got yours out two weeks ago and then throw in something like, “took you long enough.”  Or, you may say something like, why didn’t you just instant message?  I realize the habit of sending out Christmas cards is becoming a lost art, and mainly we just send out Christmas cards to older people—mostly the people who send Christmas cards to us.  I seriously doubt if our progeny have ever sent out a Christmas card.

 

I will predict that sending Christmas cards will probably die with my generation, if it isn’t on life support already.  Once upon a time, sending cards, and just writing to communicate back and forth, was a way of keeping in touch, much like we instant message today, only much lower-tech and much slower.

 

We received a Christmas card today from a fellow co-worker who mentioned that another fellow co-worker had passed away a little over a year ago.  It is funny how people who were once a daily part of your life fade out of your life, then fade out of your memory and finally a reminder comes that all that is left of them is a memory.  I have seen too many people who were once important in my life fade away and then I hear they are gone forever.  And all that is left is some memory of a good time you had with them, or something silly they did at work.  I know that we will all become just a memory someday, but I wonder too, if our existence is really summed up by something done one great summer afternoon that someone remembers fondly or that day at work when someone broke the stress with some quick phrase. 

 

“Do you remember that project we were working sixty-hour weeks to complete when Jimbo cracked us all up?”

 

Someday, we will all fade from reality and afterward fade from memory.  Maybe, though, we will do something that sticks in someone’s mind.  I hope that thing is good and is remembered fondly and not something that is lamentable.

 

At least that is our wish here in Jimbo’s world.

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