"This is a life-changing election. This will determine what America is going to look like for a long, long time," he said. And he closed by quoting the poet Seamus Heaney: "This is our moment to make 'hope and history rhyme.' With passion and purpose." (Joe Biden/August 20, 2020/Democrat National Convention)
I remember, when my mother turned around the age of 70, she commented to all my siblings and me, that, almost in an instant, she recognized that age was waiting for her, and she became old, not older! Time was suddenly standing with its hand outstretched at a horizon, which used to seem millions of miles further away, but somehow packed its bags and laid claim to a closer plot of land and set up shop. My mother added, she knew this could happen, but just where was she when the past disappeared as a blur, the present existing so fleetingly and the future, rushing forward with the force a category one hurricane. Her go-to explanation of all of this was simple. In Pittsburgh we had a newspaper called the Jewish Chronicle, basically, it was geared to the large Jewish population in Pittsburgh, with local and international news, but it was the last few pages of the Chronicle, which were the real important reading material. My mother would explain, that many years ago, she would discover who got engaged, then one day, and she had no idea when she began to read about the marriages, soon she would be finding herself smiling at the birth announcements, and then, as if OUT OF THE BLUE, all my mother did, was immediately open the Chronicle to the last few pages, and just concentrate on the OBITUARIES. “OLD,” my mother would say, as she either wiped away a tear at the news of a friend’s passing, or pause, and turn her head in a soulful manner, “OLD has found us, and it has brought with it some bad news!”
During these past Three and Three Fourth Years, as I am now the age of my mother’s recognition of OLD tracking me down, I have wondered more so than ever, about the past, but more so have grown anxious about what to expect from the future, and if THERE is a future, what will be found waiting! November is near, I have never been more fearful of a month of the year, or a year in my life. I too have cheered the loves of many, the marriages which then created families. These passages of time carried me along with my destinations, with determination, sometimes a detour, some desperation, and many dreams. Like Joe Biden and the many supporters not just of his Presidency but of the potential for Democracy, I must add this is a life-changing election.
“Well, I've been 'fraid of changin'
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm gettin' older, too
Ah, take my love, take it down
Oh, climb a mountain and turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide will bring it down
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide will bring it down
Oh, the landslide will bring it down” (Landslide/Stevie Nicks)
