Steve and Diana’s house is wonderfully spacious, impeccably designed and filled with historical artifacts from their lives, as I have strived to create in our home this past year. Amongst the myriad of photos, documents and wonderful handcrafts and artwork, there is a library room (this place is massive) where I’ve found numerous printed treasures I wish I had more time to “literally” read. I photographed a few specific titles to revisit and took photos of the shelved collection on the whole. I looked through the two ample stacks of “Playboy” magazines they had come across in their garage when moving here from Santa Clara. They were his father’s, had been stashed away in a box amongst boxes, as such treasures inherently do between discoveries and eventual re-inheritance. I set aside 4 copies to read the interview in (honest) while here.And, along with the rest of these items, I also found a stack of spiral-bound calendars dating back to at least the mid 80s, if not prior.
Unlike my far-less-substantive holdings of similar physical calendars, his are densely annotated with brief notations of specific daily incidents, places, people and events, including notes of my presence and involvement in these shared experiences. These moments, like so many others, have been lost in time and gone undocumented by me. Game nights, movie outings, meals and more. What a treasure this is for me to have come across.
When I started journaling daily, I wrote about my inspiration in this post, “And Then There Were Three”. In particular, how “...when I look back at them, it’s a time-capsule through which I can reflect on so many moments that were routine at the time and now treasured memories” and how “nothing on my cloud-based calendars ends up being referenced back to ... and only on rare occasion do I stumble across a fun memory when searching an upcoming itinerary…”.
I wish I could go back in time. I wish I’d captured more of those moments now lost. Over the past ten years or so, I’ve found myself talking to a wide range of people I’ve shared various times and roles with, to be reminded of something as simple as “Friday Midleton shots” in my office at Apple, farcical outgoing-voicemail recordings crafted in tandem with Mary, and on occasion – of places, people and moments I can not remember at all.
I suppose this is what aging brings about—Nostalgia, reminiscence, reflection. I am looking back at “the good old days” while remaining cognizant of the present moment’s value. Looking back can certainly inform the present and change to the future. I’m often unsure which realm of time I’m living in or should be. Finding that concentric overlap would be ideal.