What to do with memories?
May 13th, 2007In the past few months I’ve been clearing out lots of things, both from a need to have “less stuff” and the practical side of saving space and making some coin on ebay. Just this afternoon I finished out what was left in my ‘nostalgia’ bin, the contents of which included my Jedi robe that I had made for Halloween senior year in high school, my baby book, some old computer games (the Journeyman Project! too bad I don’t have any computer that can play it anymore) and some old letters.
Now, since I’ve been married I’ve previously cleared out the many ex-girlfriend letters (three summers at camp will generate a few) but these were from friends, including a pile from my old pen pal Stephen in Iowa. (we wrote a lot of melodramatic letters about girls between 4th and 6th grade) After giving them a final read thru, I threw them all away. I don’t know if that was right thing to do or not; but it’s always hard to draw the line on nostalgia. Do the words written that encouraged me once no longer hold any kind of impact? In the time of email, real letters are fewer and fewer, don’t I have some kind of duty to preserve them to show my kids or something? I don’t know. The hardest part of for me is on some level I feel I am ‘betraying’ the person who wrote it originally, even though I bet some of the original authors don’t even remember writing the letters in the first place.
May 14th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
I can’t believe the hopes He’s granted
Means a chapter of your life is through
But we’ll keep you close as always
It won’t even seem you’ve gone
‘Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord’s the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
‘Cause the welcome will not end
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hands we know
That a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends
And with the faith and love God’s given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you live in
Is the strength that now you show
We’ll keep you close as always
It won’t even seem you’ve gone
‘Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord’s the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
‘Cause the welcome will not end
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hands we know
That a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord’s the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
‘Cause the welcome will not end
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hands we know
That a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends
To live as friends
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hands we know
That a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends
No a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends
May 14th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Wow. That’s amazing.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
You’re right, you’re all completely right,
I’m going to throw away every letter that Michael W Smith has ever written me-
May 15th, 2007 at 8:19 am
eh. i think it’s a good thing to keep things from your past…..even if you never revisit it. if nothing else, it will provide those in the future a glimpse of who you were….what life was like, etc.
i dunno, i think removing all articles of the past from your collection forces you to focus too much on the NOW, giving no regard to WHERE you’ve been….