In the first two weeks of this year, I’ve often looked back on my life in a very practical, non-philosophical way. I revisited my former schools in Google Streetview, I went through designs made years ago, I played a video game which the teenage-me also played, and I read emails sent a decade ago.
Perhaps what triggered this, is that my sister and brother-in-law are expecting a baby. It’s wonderful, of course, in nearly every way. Yet in some ways, it’s frightening.
New life confirms the feeble nature of time. Until now, I don’t think I’ve really understood this, but it’s something everyone has to understand at some time in his or her life, and a topic on which poets and writers have emptied their pens on for centuries.
We often measure time in minutes, hours or years, but when we zoom out and look for measurements like generations, that’s when we can understand time.
My parents will be grandparents soon. What makes it scary is not the associations I have with the noun ‘grandparents’, but the fact that in the past month, not only the year has changed, but also a generation has passed.
The good thing of looking back on life is the appreciation for all the places in which we’ve lived, the things we’ve done and made, the people we’ve met.
When you add it all up, it’s mind blowing. And it somewhat soothes the passing of time, up until the point were it’s, you know, totally acceptable.
