stories
i was sitting in the fort lauderdale airport this past weekend for more than 14 hours or so, and by or so i mean it was only like 10, but ftl is a vacation hotspot. and its in florida. where old people also are. on vacation. so i saw a lot of old people on vacation. among the old was this group of eight, and they made me think. there four elderly gentlemen, very spry (i love all consonant words), but still gets the senior discount at burger king. they made me think. because i could be one of them in 40 years. my friends could be one of the other three. i wondered how they knew each other. college, like me and my spring break compatriots? maybe a war. the big one? or maybe vietnam? that was probably long enough ago. this thought specifically popped into my head because i was currently reading a book about vietnam. _the things they carried_ by tim obrien. good book. its a book about people. and stories. i looked up from this book to see all of these boys carrying on about something. i wonder what story they were telling. probably about someone they all knew. or a story they all know, and their wives don't. the laughter was loud enough for me to hear over the pod, so naturally i turned it down to eavesdrop. the four wives were sitting together to my left, and one of them gets up to take a picture. "what are we...why..but" "see cheryl? you cant even get them to sit still long enough to take a picture." as soon as the flash goes off, they get up and move about and shake off the stillness. they are still alive, very alive, and they know it, because they are always moving around, just to make sure. i turn the music back up and finish out my chapter and read an ending that makes me think. and smile.
"forty three years old, and the war occurred half a life-time ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. and sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. that's what stories are for. stories are for joining the past to the future. stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing left to remember except the story."
"forty three years old, and the war occurred half a life-time ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. and sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. that's what stories are for. stories are for joining the past to the future. stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing left to remember except the story."