Friday, October 10, 2008

"Now I sit with different faces
In rented rooms and foreign places"


Ok, so I visited a high school campus today, which I rarely do, so I may be overly morose and drunk on nostalgia, but the phrase does ring true. I stayed up a little bit tonight looking at an old high school yearbook. I cannot say that I've had the experience of going back to visit now that I know what I received in that time. Truly, I am now in a far away place.
But all the faces and places in the pictures draw me there mentally; how has it changed? How have I changed? I look in the mirror. I'm a different man now, yet those echoes of that time still reverberate in the framework of my face. How much changing have I left to do before I am that final creature?
Praise God things move forward. I remember standing there in front of the school, last day on campus, or whatever we called the school property back then. I would never have let you go, Rosslyn, had it been up to choice. I would never have sought to know new people, to grow.
And yet, praise God the memories remain. You who I've known since that time were some of the most influential in my life. Sometimes looking back serves as a better guide forward than all the road maps in the world. I noticed a bumper sticker on a car parked near mine today. It said, "Remember who you wanted to be..."
For me, tonight, the scent of the past is strong.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

49 weeks, 2 days, 32 minutes.
That's how much time, cumulative, I've spent on our schools email/bulletin board system.
If virtual time were money, I'd be going to the bank.