As Lloyd alluded to, our good friend Kathryn was here a couple of evenings to attend a funeral in South Dakota. It was awesome seeing her – as if no time had passed. (Warning: I am writing this after a very long day, and am not very coherent. There has been some hallucinating going on in my brain, I think. The following might not make sense, so bear with me.)
It struck me as we were talking in Runza that she seemed to not have aged a bit – she looked exactly like she did in college: same eyes, same laugh, same funny storytelling ability – but then I realized that I certainly don’t look exactly the same. I have wrinkles, a dead look in my eyes, and some seriously wonky hair. (Wait. That part is the same.) She must look a little different, too.
I always kid how I ”see people’s souls” which is really just my way of saying that I’m too lazy to notice or care about what people look like. So, driving home in a sleepy haze tonight, I was visiting the idea that my 20-year-old’s soul saw her 20-year-old’s soul inside, and really we were the same ‘kernel’ of Lauren/Kathryn (respectively), just with these layers of years and experience laid over that. Oh, and worse hair on my part.
In Colorado my brothers ran into an old friend in a grocery store, and as they visited Keren said, “It’s fascinating just watching the years melt away as you guys talk to each other.” Yes!
Does that make any sense? That we are who we are at the center, and time just adds to it, make us more interesting and more ‘us’.
Man, I’m tired. Forget I said anything.