Memory is a funny thing. It bounces around in the brain like a ping-pong ball (remember ping-pong?). After a while it lands on the floor.
Time is a floor, a very long floor, like a mall, or an airport concourse, or a walk in the park.
Just now I happen to be thinking about John and Yoko walking in Central Park. . . more about that later.
As I was saying, time is a floor. But it ends somewhere, at the edge of the building, at the edge of ? a lifetime. . . your lifetime, my lifetime.
In this electronic age, the lives of famous people are inextricably linked into our brains. The floor of my lifetime stretches from 1951 to . . . ? We shall see how far . . .
Then there’s the floor below the one that I happen to be on; that’s the level on which my parents’ generation walked. . . Roaring ’20’s, Depression, Wold War II, the bomb, Eisenhower.
Every now and then some amazing person will enter into this time mystery and somehow get a glimpse into those lower levels, unveiling historical truth and profundity.
And sometimes, now and then, some gifted, inspired person enters into the time frame and gets a glimpse into the upper floors, the ones that don’t even exist yet. (I don’t know how else to say it). The prophets of old, most notably, Daniel, Ezekiel, John the Apostle, Jesus himself the author of it all.
Or let’s say, in earlier centuries, such as the 1500's, a specially-equipperd person, Nostradamus, with his mysterious quatrains. So what’s up with that? I mean, how could he see up on the floors above that didn't exist yet . . . uh, but never mind. I digress.
Anyway, I was noticing that in my particular “baby-boomer” view of time, music has a lot to do with it, “it” being. . . whatever it is.
Perhaps because I am a musician, the music of my youth is closely connected to the memory tags of my lifetime, especially so in these late-life (72) years. And. . . well, long story short. . .I was remembering, on this particular day, the Beatles.
What is presently so fascinating is that the two remaining members of that fab four, Paul and Ringo, have managed to, with a little help from their (techie sound engineering) friends. . . to use an old home recording that John had made, to produce an incredibly meaningful song, “Now and Then” that brings to memory, post mortem, the rich heritage that those fab four guys were able to present to our g-generation.
Thanks to John’s wife, Yoko, who volunteered the tape for Paul and Ringo to use as a basis for their last project together.
You may want to hear it, maybe listen to it, as I do, every now and then:
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