The Long View

Things just endlessly repeat themselves. We think that what we're going through is unique, but if you've been around long enough you start to see that it's all just clothes in the dryer, spinning around. They take different shapes as they go around and they disappear and come back into view, but it's all the same stuff.

Personal health issues brought this up. Currently, my biggest problems have been insomnia, GI issues and migraines. When I sit here and look backwards, I can see that these have always been my biggest issues.

Dad passed away in 1976. I have a few memories before that, but the bulk of what's floating around in my brain starts after that. I had GI issues before he died. I remember him teaching me some yoga to do to try to help with that. I was an insomniac before he died. I remember him coming out to the living room to pick me up off the couch or his easy chair to carry me back to bed. As far as the migraines, I always thought my first one was in 1980, but the truth is that not long after he died, I had my first one. I was down for three days. I remember, after I got better, Mom telling me that if I had gone one more day, the doctor wanted me to go in and have a spinal tap done. So that's 1976 or possibly '77. (Happily, I only had 4 before 1992-ish when they became a regular thing.)

Then I started thinking about other things. For example, my parents slept in two twin beds mashed together. I don't know why. Maybe that's what they could afford. Maybe that's the way they wanted it. In any case, Brad and I have always slept in the same bed, but we each have our own set of blankets and always have.

The offspring seems to be taking a completely different course than his parents, but it won't surprise me if twenty years from now I look back and see the same cycles repeating in his life that went around in ours. The clothes might look a little different, but it's all still shirts and pants and underwear that get worn, washed, and dried and worn again.