Picture This

I was down in Newport Beach the other day having dinner with my Father and Stepmother. He had pulled out an old 8mm projector that I had been given as a gift from a teacher back in high school. I had forgotten completely about it. More surprising was the damn thing worked and the bulb was still striking.

So my dad went and dug up some old family movies. When I say old, (I mean from when he was around college age. That was odd. I was looking at images of myself. Not exactly a clone, but the features were strong and you’d easily call me my father’s son.

What was more disturbing was seeing my aunt Shirley. The last time I saw her, she had probably weighed in around 300 pounds. I’m not a great judge of weight, but I’m trying to get the idea across that she is not a petit woman. But in these home movies, she was not only svelte, but a real knockout. I mean just stunning. A beautiful, beautiful woman.

Then my head caught hold of the young vs. old thing. It’s something that is a reoccurring theme in my life. A moment in time where I see the young child, then see the old senior and that weird time space continuum that they were once one and will become the other.

There was a Vonnegut book that talked about the creature that at it’s tale was the infant and it stretched out like a snake, the form showing the aging of the creature until you reached the head which was the old man. I’m not describing it well, because I’m not Vonnegut, but you kind of get the picture.

It’s just this very odd thing to me. I’m sure parents get it more. Watching the newborn grow into the adolescent, then into the adult. The only thing separating one physical form from the other is time.


These two pictures are not of the same person, but for argument sake pretend they are. Just give it a minute and think of all of the history, all of the moments in life that change the child into the old man. And that’s what a human being does as its natural progression.

I just find it interesting and feel this flow of energy pushing me towards the next state. Like I can actually feel time in a sense that hasn’t been defined by humanity.









Or maybe I just have low blood sugar.