Ten years is a long time in the span of a human life.
It isn’t on a historical scale, but then people don’t live on historical scales. They live lives tightly bound by time, three score and ten if they’re lucky, more if they’re even luckier. The great achievement of the twentieth century wasn’t expanding the human lifetime – it was creating a world where more people hit that mark than ever before. This was always a fragile achievement, easily undone by the usual forces that drag our species down into darkness, but it was an achievement nonetheless.
But even so, it always comes to an end.
It’s been a decade now since my dad died. It feels like yesterday. It feels like a hundred years ago.
The world is a different place than it was. His grandchildren are grown now, all but one a college graduate and that last one rapidly approaching that mark. My mom has since passed away. There’s been a pandemic, an insurrection, and enough political stupidity to keep us in conversation for the next decade even if nothing else happened at all. The Eagles won the Super Bowl twice, something that he’d have enjoyed seeing. I sometimes wonder what he would have made of this world now.
I suspect he would have had some very definite opinions about it.
I do not claim to know what happens to us after we die, but if there is more to this than what we see I hope he is doing well and I hope he knows he is not forgotten.
It isn’t on a historical scale, but then people don’t live on historical scales. They live lives tightly bound by time, three score and ten if they’re lucky, more if they’re even luckier. The great achievement of the twentieth century wasn’t expanding the human lifetime – it was creating a world where more people hit that mark than ever before. This was always a fragile achievement, easily undone by the usual forces that drag our species down into darkness, but it was an achievement nonetheless.
But even so, it always comes to an end.
It’s been a decade now since my dad died. It feels like yesterday. It feels like a hundred years ago.
The world is a different place than it was. His grandchildren are grown now, all but one a college graduate and that last one rapidly approaching that mark. My mom has since passed away. There’s been a pandemic, an insurrection, and enough political stupidity to keep us in conversation for the next decade even if nothing else happened at all. The Eagles won the Super Bowl twice, something that he’d have enjoyed seeing. I sometimes wonder what he would have made of this world now.
I suspect he would have had some very definite opinions about it.
I do not claim to know what happens to us after we die, but if there is more to this than what we see I hope he is doing well and I hope he knows he is not forgotten.
2 comments:
I'm sorry that I never got to meet your dad. From what you've said here over the years, I conclude that he was a good and honorable man.
The first thing to go ... I don't remember if I've ever done this here, so, just in case ...
It is said that for each of us there are three deaths:
The first is when the body ceases to function.
The second is when the body is consigned to the grave.
The third is that moment when a name is spoken for the last time.
Say Their Name.
Lucy
I'm sorry you never did as well - I think you two would have gotten along wonderfully.
He was indeed a good and honorable man. He lives on in his family, and we say his name a lot. :)
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