That Came

Massapequa NY

29 August, 2021

12:02 AM

Description

I have many blessings. More than I could possibly enumerate. One that keeps me busy and frankly, quite content, is the number of correspondents. Many are good souls I have never met face to face. Their emails are often provocative and to be honest, inspire me to rethink opinions. Others ask questions and a small group agree with me on diverse issues. However, there is also an important segment of long lost relatives. They are the children of deceased cousins, and our hands have never touched nor have we broken bread together. Yet their words leap weekly across the miles reviving memories and resurrecting the comfort of long lost family. Sometimes, they bring back the pain endured by families (one and all) who know loss. And also, a recollection of the distress of broken relationships that in retrospect made no sense. Love should conquer all, but life teaches that doesn't always happen, Sometimes their correspondence provides an answer to a mystery of "What happened," and gives a solution to a unspoken question. And then there is the unexpected word that provokes a response. This happened yesterday when one of my lovely literate new friends selected the word "offended" describing vocabulary used by elders during her youth. I lingered on the word until I went back in time and decided it could have easily been applied to me despite the difference in our age. And I thought of the sheer ego that embraces youth. We were often so unaware or unappreciative of parents who walked a path their children would never know. The email provided a lesson. It brought me back to a time when for a brief span of years, I was swathed in self confidence, emotionally dressed for battle and far wiser than everyone else. I caterpulted back to a moment when I, too, was "offended" by certain members of the older generation. Instantly, I wished my cloak had been woven with more threads of humility and not buttoned so tightly with ego. But that came later.