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Looking back in time
"The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of" -- excerpt from a poem by Billy Collins
My friends call me a cynic when it comes to relationships. I don't believe relationships last. If they do, for sure it's for just a couple of decades because there are something lurking behind a partner's back waiting to be revealed sooner or later and then the relationship will go poof!
I guess that's natural when since you were a child, you witness experiences of this kind in your family and your family's friends.
Then last month, I attended a grandmother's funeral and right in front of me was an old couple. The man and woman were in their seventies, I think. They were sweet, like any newlyweds. I had this violent reaction: "What? U-huh, this can't be happening." Then, a little voice kept telling me, "Okay, is this really possible that people could still love each other after all those years?" Then, the cynic said, "Nah, this couple's probably THE ONLY exception." But I was proved wrong because week after week since then, I'm confronted of many instances of this kind. I suspect God was trying to remind me. Until I remember, "Shocks, I had that once, too. Oh yes, that's really possible."
Time had flown so fast and with so many things going on around me, I just forget what I had before. That one thought erased the cynic in me since then. As my bestfriend Vincent always tell me (which I fail to heed always), "Not all tomatoes are rotten."
This experience made me think that time indeed has the ability to make you forget the past.
This is also my explanation on why some older people fail to understand how it is to be young, thus the generation gap. Marissa, a 70-year-old grandmother said that she was in her teens, she used to steal the pets of some neighbors she did not like. "I was a rebel then," she admitted. She admitted to climbing out of the family gate for a party with friends because her parents were strict. Presently, she's complaining on how her grandchildren are wearing what she calls as "weird-looking" fashion. "I don't understand why you have to wear a really loose pair of jeans to the point of your briefs showing," she said of one of the boys. She also complained on how a granddaughter smokes too much. "But I'm trying to accept it. It has been a long time since my teenage years, it's easy to forget and understand that we're just alike," she said with a smile. She's still smoking tobacco that she makes herself. Been doing that since she was in her early 20s.
Lucina, a 55-year-old mother of two and separated from her husband, had cervical cancer years before. It was not easy for her, but she got over it. The cancer's been gone for 10 years now. One time, we were together and I saw how several things scare her --- going home late at night and being alone, among others. I reminded her how she battled cancer and how she came out victorious. "Hmmm, yes. It's been so many years I forgot how I faced it courageously," she said, adding that she'll try to be courageous again on her day-to-day activities.
From this, I guess that in order to understand some things, we need to look back in time. The answers may just be there, hidden in our memories blurred by time.
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