From the Bottom of the Bucket

            Glory Days

“Glory days, well they’ll just pass you by”  - Bruce Springsteen

I have this theme that runs through my dreams.  One of the meds I am on for Parkinson’s has the side effect of intense dreams.  The common theme is a rewrite of past memories to a new standard of satisfaction.  I am sure that these random memories have been edited to elevate my actions to heroic proportions.  While the emotional impact of these dreams is satisfying it often leaves me with the thought - what happened to dreams of the future?

One of the challenges of aging is dealing with the realization that your future is shrinking.  We have always been encouraged to “dream of a better future”, but that task has been more difficult as I watch friends come to the end of their lives, leaving me to contemplate the  proximity of my own mortality.  While the richness of possibility is still present, the duration of potential seems to be diminishing.

It takes a concerted effort not to succumb to the trap of living in the past.   As your memory re-writes these experiences to suit its ego, the future seems to be less inviting.  He “good old days” are calling us to a “simpler” time when reality conformed to our particular view of how things should be.   In our heart we know that this is fantasy, but it is so much easier that living in the chaos called the Present.

There is hope though. The Present is a classroom for the Future.  As we attend to the Activities of daily living, we can harvest the optimism of others, using it to fertilize our own dreams, helping them to exceed our memories. Past recollections have their place, but not as a substitute for today’s experiences.. .

As we approach the season of hopefulness, let’s take some time to honor our Past, while looking to something more in the Future, by being in the Present

Happy holidays to all !

Until next time, I wish you fulfillment.

 

Bob