DayVee Goes Retro

Thanks to my teenagers I’ve recently discovered Facebook. It’s been really fun tracking down people I knew decades ago and renewing old friendships. It’s like playing a combination of my own private versions of “Where are they now?” and “This Is Your Life.” But this stroll down Memory Lane has brought several interesting things within me to the surface.

Obviously to start with, I am getting OLD! Sure I don’t feel like it most days. (I can still run faster than any of my kids!) But I see a name that I should recognize and it takes me several moments to place them and dust out the cobwebs to really remember anything about them or a shared experience. I haven’t seen or spoken to some of these people over half my lifetime ago.

Which of course brings up the fact that I am such a terrible “keep-in-toucher.” There is but one person from my high school years on my current Christmas card list and the same goes for my college years. And I can’t even remember when the last phone conversation I had with either of them was. And it’s not like I was a real loner way back then. I think I was kind of fun and very social. I wish I had the “gift” my dad has. I call him Mr. Friendly. He is so good at all the people kind of stuff.

And though I have many fond memories of past things and people, the first thing that usually pops into my brain as I reconnect is a regret about some way I recall in which I was not as nice to them as I should have been or some other such way in which I think I may have wronged them. Then I feel silly because if I do bring it up the other person doesn’t even have a clue about whatever it is I’m making an apology for.

I understand that who I am today is such a mixture of my past experiences and those who touched my life in small and big ways. Somewhere along the line I suppose I got this warped idea that living in the now and not in the past means never, ever looking back so that’s pretty much what I’ve done. But in doing that I’m sure I’ve missed the many blessings these past friendships may have produced. Now I’ve got A LOT of catching up to do. This should be fun!