Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Missing people

I sometimes feel silly about all the little things that pass through my mind each day, and the trivial stuff that I notice and think about. I check Facebook several times a day, and keep up with a lot of little things that make up the days of my friends as well, as if the trivia in my own life weren't enough.

Each time I pass the corner of Dowling and Xerxes, I think about the man who last summer was frequently sitting out on a lawn chair watching life go by, while he smoked his cigarettes. When I returned from my winter home, he was not there. He died in March.

A little further up the street on the corner of 42nd and York, the lawn was always a potential advertisement for Turf Builder. It was diligently cared for by an older man with whom I often exchanged a greeting. In past years he had lawn signs for candidates I wouldn't have voted for, but we didn't discuss politics. He too has died.

Last week at St. Paul's we had memorial services for two parishioners whom I knew casually. This Saturday we will have a service for a third. All of these people were a part of my world and, though I didn't know them well, I will and I do miss them.

Ok, so this is beginning to sound morbid, but it's not meant to be. One of the benefits of aging, I think, is the appreciation I have for all the lives that have touched mine through the years remembered each day in the mundane tasks of life. Each one was significant in some way. While I despair that my mind dwells so much on trivia, I can imagine that not remembering this trivia would be much more tragic. I think I shall continue to appreciate my active mind, as long as I can keep it.

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