still good

  It was a phrase I used in a conversation the other day and has stuck with me. That happens every once and a while. I have taken to writing those down in a journal along with poems that I have written. A sort of collection of my thoughts. This phrase I would call a title, more than anything else. Title's are encapsulated ideas. The author has the obligation to open that capsule and explain its' meaning to the reader. This particular title is a tough nut to crack. What I mean is, I'm struggling to find the meaning. The title in question: Hand me down memories. It came to me as away to describe pictures of my ancestors. I have quite a few due to my work on the family tree. Most have the names associated with them, they are several that do not. Perhaps those photos are ancestors, or perhaps they are pictures of friends of those ancestors. I have a number of photographs that belonged to my father. Those photographs are from his days in the service, the air crews he flew with during WW2. A few have names on them, a few have locations, and others are completely unidentified. Those were his memories, handed down to me. It wasn't by design, it was by circumstance. Still I feel a sense of responsibility for them. 

 Are all the stories, anecdotes, and possessions of our ancestors hand me down memories?  I'd have to say they are. They are certainly used, second hand, and isn't that a hand me down? From whomever you received them their feeling was that they would still be of use. The original owner didn't feel those things were ready to be discarded. The fate of those items now lies with whoever the recipient was. You could look at it in this way. I'm through with the item but not ready to discard it completely. The result being, I hand it down. At that point it will be determined, utility versus sentiment. It is sentiment that causes us to retain an item when it has exceeded its' utility. 

 We all like to share our memories. When we are longer here, to tell those stories in the first person, they are hand me down memories. When I first wrote that "title" down hand me down memories a friend said it sounded like a country song. I agreed that it did. Hand me down implies something already used, somehow less inferior, and the one receiving that is somehow disadvantaged. Well disadvantaged is the polite term we apply today, in years past, we would have said poor. But we should remember that those memories were important to the original owner, they bought them. Yes, they bought the farm with those. Funny how buying the farm implies something bad and in this case, I would be dying to buy the farm. I did so by entrusting you with my memories. 

 Well that's what I have determined so far anyway. I'm thinking the idea could be a good country song. George Jones singing the grand tour comes to mind. It wasn't about hand me down memories but it was about memories that much is certain. In the beginning lines of that song he says, "I have nothing here to sell you, just some things that I will tell you." Handing down a memory? Yes, I would say that is exactly what he wanted to do. It is an attempt to hand down sentiment. Well, at least I think it could be. That is what my feeling is anyway. I write about it, I talk about it  all the time. I do wonder what will happen to my stuff after I'm gone. The stuff is the hand me downs. We remember hand me downs. Whenever we see them or use them we are reminded, they are hand me downs. What we sometimes forget is how valuable they were to the original owner. Each item has something to tell you. The importance of the message is what you are responsible for. 

 Recognizing the sentimental value,  that is your responsibility. That occurs with each person, each generation. It's called attachment. How attached are you to the object? It doesn't have to be a physical object though, it can just be a memory. The very reason I say, as long as you speak a persons name they are not gone. I will say having reminders of that person is always helpful. And now I'm thinking that perhaps second hand memories would be a better way of describing what I'm thinking about. Those that I never knew personally, those memories are second hand, and in some cases third hand or fourth hand! Whatever they are I do feel an obligation to save them, pass them down. The hope being someone else will get good use out of them. Isn't that the reason we hand them down? I hope someone will get good use out of my memories, find something of value in them. Yeah they are a little old, but they are still good.