From The Storyteller
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January 7, 2019 Twenty six Years
New Year’s Eve 2018 and we’re celebrating at home by watching our CD copy of Wayne’s World. Half way through the movie I realize Wayne and Garth (his buddy) are wearing 2018's fashionable jeans with holes in them. Curiosity overwhelms me, and the CD cover reveals the movie was released in 1992 (26 years ago). Wow! I know things change, and fashion is something that changes often, but it never occurred to me the cool look of wearing holey jeans in 1992 would be a fashion statement 26 years later. That’s when Elaine asks me what I think about this revelation. My response, “Tattoos are permanent”. This is when she gives me her “Alice in Wonderland” look, which invites my explanation. Wanting to be a good husband, I reveal to her my thinking process. It begins with thinking about how, in our western culture, virtually everything that fills our lives is subject to change over time. Advertising phrases like “New and improved”, “Our best ever”, and “For the first time” exist because change, which may only be a repackaging of something that already exists, generates sales. Our ability to see things from a different perspective works like magic on our imaginations, adding vibrant colors to our world. Examples from my youth include Cheerios, which we sugared, being transformed into Fruit Loops which are colored Cheerios already sugared, and bell bottom pants. My comment, about tattoos being permanent, is drawn from a Jimmy Buffet song. “A permanent reminder of a temporary feeling” is a statement about how some of the changes that happen in life, really are more than “New and improved”. These are the changes that are permanent, and for me one of those changes was becoming a father. Moral: Change happens, some changes are permanent. |