The Face of Change
It was the week David Bowie died.
On the day it happened, I put "Ch-ch-changes" on my Facebook wall. It had just come on the radio, and it summed up my thoughts at the moment. I was never a huge David Bowie fan, but many, many of his songs were part of my childhood in the 70's and 80's. And it struck me at the time that here was another change. Another rock star that I once thought was eternally young and invincible, was not gone. Another change in my life that I hadn't expected and, in this case, really didn't like.
But I realize life is all about change. As we took my daughter Sarah back to college after her winter break, I was stricken by how different, how changed, the University of Minnesota campus is. There are new buildings, new road configurations, new ways of studying (e.g. digital books, etc.) and new course offerings - some even online.
At the same time, my daughter was walking, sometimes literally, in my footsteps as a student at the U. And it occurred to me that the old saying "The more things change, the more they stay the same," couldn't be more true. Sure it seemed like just yesterday that I was a student there, but this is her time. Her experience will be the same, but completely different. Her interests are entirely different than mine, but yet her struggles with classes, tests and defining what she wants to do are all things that I had to sort through.
We also saw another change in that my mom moved into a new place with my eldest sister. She was living with my other sister Jane who is looking to sell her house, so mom moved in with sister Pat. The interesting thing is, it's in the same complex that she was in before she moved in with Jane. In fact it's right next door. The more things change...
As we were driving up to Minnesota with Sarah, I reached over and grabbed Donna's hand and said, "Don't you miss those days of driving to Minnesota when you had to hurdle the front seat to open a package of goldfish or a juice box for the kids?" Of course she said no, but the point of the matter is that was a phase in our life that seemed so hard, yet we just kind of rolled with it. She followed it up with the reminder that in a few years we won't be driving our kids to college either, which made me incredibly sad for a moment.
And, in the words of a band of another lost rocker last year, (Gary Richrath) we'll Roll with the Changes.
Blogging off...
On the day it happened, I put "Ch-ch-changes" on my Facebook wall. It had just come on the radio, and it summed up my thoughts at the moment. I was never a huge David Bowie fan, but many, many of his songs were part of my childhood in the 70's and 80's. And it struck me at the time that here was another change. Another rock star that I once thought was eternally young and invincible, was not gone. Another change in my life that I hadn't expected and, in this case, really didn't like.
But I realize life is all about change. As we took my daughter Sarah back to college after her winter break, I was stricken by how different, how changed, the University of Minnesota campus is. There are new buildings, new road configurations, new ways of studying (e.g. digital books, etc.) and new course offerings - some even online.
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| Three Generations |
At the same time, my daughter was walking, sometimes literally, in my footsteps as a student at the U. And it occurred to me that the old saying "The more things change, the more they stay the same," couldn't be more true. Sure it seemed like just yesterday that I was a student there, but this is her time. Her experience will be the same, but completely different. Her interests are entirely different than mine, but yet her struggles with classes, tests and defining what she wants to do are all things that I had to sort through.
We also saw another change in that my mom moved into a new place with my eldest sister. She was living with my other sister Jane who is looking to sell her house, so mom moved in with sister Pat. The interesting thing is, it's in the same complex that she was in before she moved in with Jane. In fact it's right next door. The more things change...
As we were driving up to Minnesota with Sarah, I reached over and grabbed Donna's hand and said, "Don't you miss those days of driving to Minnesota when you had to hurdle the front seat to open a package of goldfish or a juice box for the kids?" Of course she said no, but the point of the matter is that was a phase in our life that seemed so hard, yet we just kind of rolled with it. She followed it up with the reminder that in a few years we won't be driving our kids to college either, which made me incredibly sad for a moment.
And, in the words of a band of another lost rocker last year, (Gary Richrath) we'll Roll with the Changes.
Blogging off...
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