THE PASSAGE OF TIME
Today is the twelfth birthday of my grandson, Samuel Emerson Wolff. We are separated by seventy-two years. My father's father and I were separated by fifty-four years. I have a very powerful sense today of the passage of time and the arc of life.
The more regrets one has about what one has not done in one's life, the harder it is to reconcile oneself to the passage of time.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have relatively few regrets, which should make reconciling yourself to time's passing not easy, but easier. That, at least, is my two cents, fwiw, and before shutting off the computer for the evening.
I have regrets, especially about how I treated some women in my life.
ReplyDeleteI have regrets about hitting David Ericson almost 55 years ago. He was gay, and I knew he wouldn't hit back. I didn't hit him because he was gay, but as part of a general conflict among several room-mates.
I have regrets about the moments when I used whatever little power I had to push someone weaker around or to lord over them. In general, that was psychological violence, not physical violence except in the case of David.
I have regrets about how I treated Barbara Lyon. She later became a prominent feminist intellectual, and maybe someone who reads this blog knows her. If so, give her my apologies.
I have regrets about how classist and intellectually snobbish I used to be, in spite of my radical leftwing beliefs. The classism and intellectual snobbism come from my upbringing, but I should have been more self-aware. It's taken more than 50 years to arrive at a basic level of self-knowledge.
I have regrets about how uncaring about others I was, how cold I often was.
Otherwise, no regrets, at least none that come to mind at this moment. Time passes all too rapidly.