Time flies

It was one of those dreams that morphs unexpectedly. I was showing someone a photograph of family at a birthday celebration long ago. In identifying the people in the photograph, suddenly I could not remember the name of a family member (an in-law, happily). Searching my mind for the name (Betsy), my mind wanted to start the name with an "R." Of course, Betsy was listening (in the dream) and immediately demanded to know of my brother, "Whose name started with R that we should think of her first?" Then the dream started to get really weird, because then everybody in the photograph started changing -- new faces, new identities, new time frame. Trying to figure out this change, I found it was simply easier to wake up!

Anyhow, the old picture suggested to me the title of this piece. A picture of family so long ago that infants and toddlers in the picture are now college students, and the puppy in the picture (who was actually fully adult in the real time frame of the picture!) is long dead and only a memory for those of us that knew him and were fond of him. It seems like yesterday! What is the nature of this duality of time - that events long ago can seem so recent, but yesterday's lunch seems so long past it is only faintly remembered if it is remembered at all?

And why am I suddenly so old, when I have not yet begun to accomplish my dreams?