Posters on the Walls of our Heart are Taken Away One by One
Woody Bavota
July 01, 2009
Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon all meant a great deal to the history of Americana. Arenīt they a bit more that that though? They are people, human beings, like you and I. We cherish, admire and emulate until they fall from popularity, then they fade from our conscious mind.
When they die, we remember every nuance of their existence. But arenīt we really looking at our own lives as we traveled along with their popularity. Depending on your age, we all remember The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and his large, vociferous second banana Ed McMahon. The Tonight Show would not have been the same without him. Or the sexy blond Farrah fighting the bad guys on Charlieīs Angels and pinned to bedroom walls, bringing in throngs of pubescent youth to a new enlightenment. Then Michael Jackson, well who didnīt hear of this kid, his winning voice and personality that just transcended race and generations.
We reminisce, forgive their failings and speak of them again as we did in their height of popularity. Why? Mortality! We play, go to school, work, and raise familyīs but never look at our own mortality until someone we love and admire passes from our lives. And even at that point it is an unconscious thought. No one wants to die, nor get old; we spend billions of dollars a year just to not let people know our age.
Memories are important, but precious seconds are never frozen in time. If we lived more in the moment instead of worrying, maybe we may stretch our own mortality out a bit longer. By thinking of and appreciating life as it exists in the present, being cognoscente of all that is really important, telling our loved ones that indeed they mean the world to us before they are gone, we are left with little regrets.
When they die, we remember every nuance of their existence. But arenīt we really looking at our own lives as we traveled along with their popularity. Depending on your age, we all remember The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and his large, vociferous second banana Ed McMahon. The Tonight Show would not have been the same without him. Or the sexy blond Farrah fighting the bad guys on Charlieīs Angels and pinned to bedroom walls, bringing in throngs of pubescent youth to a new enlightenment. Then Michael Jackson, well who didnīt hear of this kid, his winning voice and personality that just transcended race and generations.
We reminisce, forgive their failings and speak of them again as we did in their height of popularity. Why? Mortality! We play, go to school, work, and raise familyīs but never look at our own mortality until someone we love and admire passes from our lives. And even at that point it is an unconscious thought. No one wants to die, nor get old; we spend billions of dollars a year just to not let people know our age.
Memories are important, but precious seconds are never frozen in time. If we lived more in the moment instead of worrying, maybe we may stretch our own mortality out a bit longer. By thinking of and appreciating life as it exists in the present, being cognoscente of all that is really important, telling our loved ones that indeed they mean the world to us before they are gone, we are left with little regrets.