“A rolling stone gathers no moss”
If you were to sum up my life in one phrase the above aphorism might just be it. I spent the first 18 years of my life more or less as a military brat. I literally had 13 changes of schools before I graduated high school. This includes one school that I was in for a single day. I have described the last 30 years of my working life as that of a computer gypsy, moving around to take different jobs in Information Technology. I did have a stable period in between (at least as far as physical location) when I lived in Arkansas and we were getting kids through school.
In such a life people come and go. It is just a fact of life that you get used to. I do not know how many times I have said to someone, “have a good life”, knowing I would never be seeing them again. I have on occasions tried to maintain relationships over time and distance, but this must be two sided and has very seldom worked out.
I have now reached the age where many of my relatives, friends and acquaintances are passing away. This is sincerely a sadness just in itself. If a person truly touches you, they take up residence in some part of your psyche. I have sometimes described this as feeling like I have ghosts running around my soul. At times it has felt a little crowded in there.
And now add an additional sadness due to this technical age. After the fact of someone’s death, sometimes much later, I will come across their information in one of my address books or contact lists. I have such a hard time deleting the information, it feels like deleting the memory of that person. Sometimes the address\contact card will remain in there for years. I just cannot delete it.
On the positive side, it does make you stop for a minute and remember the person when you stumble across it.
Sigh. We march on.
Keep well.
