On Remembering
They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder.
For someone with a poor memory, I’m not sure if this is always true. I don’t know about you, but often distance and time apart leads me to selectively remember only certain parts of someone – sometimes only negative things or a first/last impression. Eventually, this sometimes leads me to indifference… outta sight, outta mind.
I find this is true with some of my friends who I don’t get to see or talk to regularly. But I was reminded today of how good it is to see old friends, because it helps me to remember and appreciate them for all they are. It’s like when you are trying to remember a movie that is hazy in your memory, and then you re-watch it, and you realize you had forgotten the best part of the movie completely. That is how I felt today with an old friend whose friendship had slipped from my mind… but being there, laughing and sharing and remembering … it reminded me that friendship like that is to be treasured.
I was thinking about this today and how friendship really is messy and uncomfortable. You’re often dragged through the mud, people’s feelings get hurt, it requires you to step up/suck it up when it’s the last thing you want to do, and it always puts you in a vulnerable place. But I think it is exactly these difficult things that make friendship worth something – when it has weathered the storms of insecurity, change, heartbreak, confusion, growing up, moving on.
So, remembering is important – with friends, as it is with God. It’s not my tendency to remember His faithfulness, or remember things that are out of sight and out of mind, but making a point to do that leads me to thankfulness.
On that note, I’m finding this also true with music. It’s so easy to forget the bands who were good to you in your youth!!! But I am spending this weekend with Death Cab and am leaving you with this oldie but goodie.
Happy thxgiving!
