When I was in graduate school, I read the excellent book “The
Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud” by Ben Sherwood. Last night I was finally able to see the movie
adaptation with Zac Efron which is also pretty good. Some of the bonus features talked about the
need to be “connected” to those who pass on; we wind up trying to hold onto
just a small piece of them. It got me to
thinking about those who come in and out of our lives; how they impact us,
sometimes profoundly, no matter how long we know them. We form unbreakable bonds with people whom we
may go years without seeing. We maintain
relationships with far-flung friends whom we may never see again. A deep connection to someone rarely seen can
be so much more fulfilling than the relationships that are a part of our daily
lives. As such, no matter how many of
us, myself including, claim to be loners, we are all striving, each and every
day, for some type of connection.
Whether we connect in friendship, love, or some indefinable, these are
the relationships that sustain us, that nourish and encourage us.
At the same time, I think about the movie’s message of how
we desire to connect with those who have gone on before us, those friends and
loved ones we have lost. I like to think
of my grandmother as my guardian angel.
I like to think that she watches over us and guides us to make the right
decisions. In life she provided
encouragement, but never forcefully. So I
like to think that she allows me to be rational and to explore my creativity as
she also loved to draw and paint. There are
so many others I have known in my life who have passed on and so they remain at
the back of my mind, pieces that were lost from the puzzle of life. For some their time was long; for others,
they barely got to make their way in life before they were lost to us
forever. I connect to them with my
memories; photos and scraps of things that remind me of them. Mementos and souvenirs—well, it all sounds
like something out of a song.
Currently listening to:
“Like a Rock” by Bob Seger
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