sonora2sonoma

Of all the advances of modern science, from the development of germ theory to the recent Space X landing and recovery, the one area in which little progress has ever been made concerns a property whose effect on our lives is beyond dispute. Time.

Try as they may,  people have been attempting to modify or overcome the toll time takes on our bodies since at least the time of the Pharaohs, and likely far earlier. Supremely democratic, time ignores distinctions like class, race or status with the same disinterest as does the coronavirus, and neither science nor the deepest sorcery has so far found a way to master it.  

Anyone over 50 can probably relate, at least to some extent, to the various aches and pains that, unfortunately, announce their presence more pointedly with each subsequent year. The gradual nature of those changes makes it easy to dismiss their import unless some chronic illness interrupts the process. The sudden appearance of an object from one’s past, however, has the power to bring the effects of the passage of time into sharp focus.

An old tin box, into which I placed some important papers 50 odd years ago, tells the story of time in a way mere words alone cannot. Once bright and shiny, it now sits covered with so much corrosion that, when I came across it in a corner of an old cabinet this afternoon, I at first though it a relic of a bygone time. The papers inside, now browned and brittle with age, were still readable, reporting what I spent having a Volkswagen engine repaired that broke down in New Mexico just a couple of days before Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. The corrosion, worse on the inside, imparted a coarse and dirty feel to the box’s contents from the dust resulting from it’s slow surrender to the ravages of time.

Reflecting on my discovery, and my initial thoughts about the box’s provenance, it dawned on me that it is, indeed, a relic of a bygone time. After that realization, it took little time at all to realize that I, too, am in large measure a relic of a bygone time. Or might be, depending on the way I choose to process that information.

A glimmer of hope appeared as I realized my seniority status, increasing daily,  in no way means I’m becoming irrelevant. After all, Joe Biden is not much older than I am, and look how he’s chosen to spend his time! Only those who buy into the notion of “over the hill” find themselves traversing the slopes that lie beyond. I’m not yet ready for that journey. For me, the summit lies ever ahead.  I’ve still got more to do, more to be.

My only problem is finding the time to do it!

Tim Konrad

2020.08.14