TIme Passages

Wifey's BFF Edna was here for the weekend, and after her visits to her ancient parents, spent a lot of time talking with Wifey and me. At this stage of our lives, hopefully pre-grandparent, we of course spent a lot of time talking about our families -- mostly our 4 awesome daughters, among us. One thing was stark -- the fast passage of time once the girls were born. Wifey and Edna met in junior high -- Wifey was thrown next to Edna as the "other Israeli girl now with us," and their shared backgrounds, with Holocaust Survivor parents, drew them together, with a bond that has endured many, many years. And those first years, from junior high to young womanhood, seemed to last forever. At least to them, and the never ending tales they love to tell. But once 1983 rolled around (Edna's first daughter's birth year), things took off like a car on black ice. And they continue to fly today. It's true -- even now, that I don't work nearly the same hours as I did for many years, the hours fly by. We're leaving for a cruise in just over two months. Old time would have made that seem a long time away -- now it feels like it's time to start packing. But then, it seems, if you live too long, as Edna's parents and Wifey's mother have, time slows again. My mother in law complains about being so bored, about "vatching de 4 walls all day," even though Wifey fills her week with trips and activities. Einstein's genius is so clear to me as I age -- time DOES bend and twist. It's funny -- our friend Stu comes to the office many days and says he wants to be me. I have a much gentler work schedule than he does. He's still so active in the practice, and yet extends vacations, comes in late each day. It occurred to me that I envy HIM, from the years 1988-2005, when I was cutting short vacations, getting to the office early each day, missing events from the Ds childhoods, to get ahead. And in the long run, it won't matter at all. Time will claim both of us. With rare exception, a few generations does the trick, of erasing the importance of most people. I was never close to the three grandparents I met (my paternal grandfather was long gone by the time I was born), and yet I almost never think about that generation. They were responsible for my modern family -- coming to this new world around the turn of the century -- leaving Europe and the Holocaust -- getting my parents a new chance in life. And yet they're gone -- my maternal grandfather died when I was a boy, and my grandmothers died when I was a young man -- and to the next generation -- my Ds -- they're just the subject of a few quaint tales. A lesson I taught the Ds, since they were small, is that life is, indeed, NOT fair. And yet it can be, and if you're lucky, often is, exquisite. It's about using wisely your allotted time -- fast as it flies by.