William Blake said: Nothing is lost.
And sure enough, everything remains and nothing is lost, except appearances. Forms shift and names change as things transform from one to another in a cycle that never ends.
We see it happening all around us, in the most simple and everyday aspects of life. Take children, for example. They can’t fend for themselves, and need help and guidance, attention and care. They’re whimsical and unpredictable. They throw the odd tantrum here and there, and when they get mad they may not talk to you for a while. And need to be reassured all the time that you’re there for them.
In short, they’re wonderful, in the special way children are.
And so are the elderly. For they, too, can’t fend for themselves, not like they used to. They need our help, attention and care.
So in very real, practical terms, nothing is lost. Everything remains, merely changing form and shifting around, coming full circle. We revolve and revisit ourselves. Our childhood isn’t lost, on the contrary, it returns, but with wrinkles. Our adulthood remains, we’re both adult and child now, our sense of self still present, adapting to the ages and playing its part. We’re children reborn in maturity, curious Benjamin Buttons on our wondrous journey through time. Nothing is lost, not even our omnipotence. We can’t lose that, for we never had it to begin with.
With that in mind, it would be nice to pay attention to the elderly now and then because they deserve it. They’ve lived a long life and given us the chance to be here, and we need to let them know it was worth it, that they’re still here, part of our lives. Times may be moving on fast, but love remains.
Also don’t forget that we, too, will grow wrinkles at some point. We’ll one day become elderly while our children become us. Our influence will pass down to our grown-up children’s hands, and it’s we who will now be in need of them. Better show them how we’d like to be treated when we grow old, by good example, while they’re younger and still modeling us. We better. You never know what our second childhood will be like.
And on it goes, from generation to generation.
Happy New Year!