It was nice!

We played with Matchbox cars.  You know the last time I did that?

Years ago.

We played today with cars, trucks, convertibles…and they rode up and down a little construction lot.  It brought back some great memories.  There was innocence and focus, intensity and laughter.

It was all there, and all so simple!

All the cars I used to play with are somewhere in storage, I think.  No idea where .  It’s funny…when I was young, I couldn’t get enough of them, and now, I couldn’t even find them.

Is that tragic?

I’m not sure.  I’ve moved on to more complex toys and forms of entertainment.  I don’t want to knock those things, but I can’t help but remember there was a time when a one dollar car was just as fun as a Wii…When wooden blocks brought the same smile as an iPhone…And when a slide was just as thrilling as a drive north.

I’m not sure what happened between “way back when” and “right now”…Is there a fundamental difference?  Am I the same person?  What really matters to me today?

We can all ask these questions, I think.  As we age, we are more and more pressed by responsibility and, possibly, a growing angst around the meaning of life.

Where are we?  Who are we?

Maybe those answers can be found by going back into memory and re-discovering who we were…or what we used to play with.

-josh

I am.

I went to school in St. Andrews for a while and it is simply wonderful to watch the Open Championship and see a lot of the places I used to go.  If you look carefully in some of the shots, you can see my old dorm.

Really.

I could see the 18th hole and the sea from the bathroom.

Really.

I still remember where some of the pubs are where I used to hang out, and I see landmarks that I used to pass on my way to class.  Those were some good days and there are lots of good memories of that time, I can tell you.

I took a lot of it for granted, I’m sure.  I didn’t always appreciate it when I was there, I’m sure.  So much of it passed so quickly like scenery on the road.

I met a lot of people that wonderful semester and I have lost touch with so many of them.  But I guess, in the end, that’s really the sum total of so much we do.  It’s not really about who we met along the way, but how we remember them down the road.

And I have good memories.  I have photo albums.  I have funny stories.

I’ll be in front of the TV tomorrow watching golf in Scotland.  But is that all I’ll be doing?

Nah…I’ll be traveling there in my mind and re-living a good time in my life.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

-josh

So, we compromised on a cut and paste, and you know?  It’s probably gonna look really good.

And isn’t that how it goes with memories?  They really are that cut and paste job.  And if we want, we can make them as nice as we want.  Even the bad ones, with enough time, get the power of perspective behind them and turn out pretty nice!

So, it was a fun exercise tonight.  I may go through some old pics just to see what I have.  You don’t need permission for nostalgia.

Maybe I’ll go through them with a lifelong friend…

We can search for that one perfect pic that doesn’t exist!