Old photos, old films, memory prompts
On Saturday I caught sight of a photo of my first class at school. I went back to it. A parent of one of the class had posted it on my hometown’s Facebook page. I remembered his son and sent him a message to say so. His son had only remained with us for that year and then moved as I recalled to England. We were four years old but I remembered him.
Of course, the photo brought back others to mind. That class will have hit 50 this year. At least two have not lived to see 50. One of our number and I have remained friends from our first day at school. She is as a sister to me. I did notice another in the photo who I had been friends with at school but as we grew we drifted. I was not sure I would have recognised him if I saw him and only did because someone made a comment that linked to his Facebook page.
When I see such photos they draw me back to that time and my hometown. I feel like I left the class and the town. I did. I reckon in my head it was destiny for me to move on yet there is a part of me that never wanted to leave. How would it have been if I stayed? Is a question that occasionally goes through my head. ‘If was to be’ to travel on and develop outside my own strictures.
Football was ‘the’ big cultural activity. Your status as a male was made based on how well you played. I couldn't help but play it, it was everywhere but I wasn’t particularly interested in it or good at it. It seemed to define who you were.
The story of the young David often comes to mind on such occasions. He was still a boy shepherd when he offered to fight the giant Goliath. They placed him in armour but it didn’t fit. He decided it was best to fight Goliath with what he had, his sling and stones. Goliath laughed when he saw the boy come to fight him but the laughing stopped with one stone in his forehead floored him.
The story reminds me that we all need to find our own fit. People may think we need ‘armour’ the expected, what has always been yet for us to be who we are we may need to say, “Thank you but that is not going to work for me let me work out what is best for me.”
In this time of confinement to our homes, I have seen films I always thought I would watch one day and I have taken the opportunity to watch some I haven’t seen for years. The Wizard of Oz and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang are the two most memorable films of my childhood. I could never remember how Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang ends so I watched it. I think that tells me that the story of the car is the story and the ending is just the ending. Another reminder that the greatest moment can be on the journey rather than arriving.
In the Meeting for Worship, I became aware that as I sat in my home beside my computer I was linking with 19 others. We were connected yet miles apart. It made me wonder are we forever connected it is simply that our awareness has not reached that level. Most of us don’t speak in a Quaker meeting so the connectedness is based on knowing via technology that the others are present. But we are always present aren’t we?
It reminds me of when I was in a medical centre in New York City attached to a drip. I had been bitten by a mosquito and my foot became infected. I was fearful and struggling. It was then I visualised all those I love and one by one they came into the room and comforted me. I felt strengthened and less fearful.
Best day, g
