just living

  Called one of my oldest friends for his birthday. Richard James Pratt is his name and I've known him since the sixth grade, back in the twentieth century. We graduated high school together in 1971, joined the navy together and even worked at a job afterwards together. But time and circumstance conspired, and we went our separate ways. I went back in the navy, and he went to Colorado! We have gotten together a few times over the years, but those meetings have been far and few between. We have stayed in touch however, phone calls and an occasional card or letter. He has chosen not to use any form of social media, zero net presence I think they call that, off the grid. It is still "BTI" with him, before the internet. And that is the only method of communicating with him.

 We had our usual conversation, talking about the old times and the old days. We laughed a bit remembering certain events and happenings. We talked about other friends we share in common and how they are doing. These conversations are almost always the same. When you are not close together, sharing daily activities that is all you can really talk about, the past. It's true that with old friends you can just pick the conversation up wherever you left off the last time you spoke. I understand why that is now, it is usually the same conversation. Don't misunderstand me I'm not complaining about that, I look forward to talking with him and reliving that past. I will never grow tired of that. The only issue when having a conversation on the phone, long distance, is in bringing up a new topic. It is a matter of context. It takes a long time to describe the context of what you are trying to say. The response will always be what you expect from twenty years ago or more. Does that make sense?

 Eventually the conversation will turn to a bit of current events. The changes in the world are discussed. We do that and lament the loss of civility in society, in a general sense. We complain about the cost of everything, the kids, and how everything has changed. What we once thought of as growth, gaining maturity and wisdom now becoming nostalgia. And with that occasionally the question, what were we thinking? Turns out in retrospect we weren't doing a lot of that. We were just living. As we wrapped up the conversation, with the usual optimism of we'll get together soon, maybe this summer, Rich said something that stuck in my mind. He said we sure could use a few positive things in the news. He wasn't just talking about the national news or the local news but news about our friends and classmates from those days of yore. Mostly you just hear when one of them passes away. And that is becoming all too frequent. 

 The thing is none of that is new. It has been that way since the beginning of time. It's a constant change, sometimes sudden but mostly gradually, subtlety and unnoticed. As I thought of that a song began to play in my head. I've found that is often the case, a song, a poem or a passage from a book begins to play almost like it was triggered. For those old enough to remember like pushing B3 on a jukebox. This time it was Anne Murray from 1983. She is signing the chorus: we should use a little good news today. Ain't that the truth. 

                                                                 

Yeah, nothing much changes, except everything.