Flashbacks

A good thing about being in your seventies and still reasonably intact mentally, is that there are so many memories of people, places and events. Having been writing in this blog forum for nearly twenty years gives me ability to look back over those years. I rarely do. I don't feel need to. I have flashbacks in my mind every day to past events and people, triggered by the slightest thing, an object, a song, a crossword clue, a scene, a tree, a flower, something on TV or radio, I could go on and on. The flashback maybe fleeting, just seconds, or last some minutes as I indulge in a cup of tea or a coffee. Occasionally, it sends me into long contemplation that may last hours.

Mostly it's good. My memories of people are vivid, warmer in this retrospectivity than perhaps I felt about them in real time. The same about incidents, even bad ones, the pain of things I may have felt then is diminished to almost nonexistence. It's easier to recall good than bad. Pain is eased. I can think over things that happened at school, on the football field, in my employment, family situations - it's all easier to accept as part of a big evolving picture. All normal life stuff. There's comfort in the realization that I've made it here, successfully enduring whatever was thrown my way or what trauma I walked into - wittingly or self-inflicted, or unwittingly, accidentally.

With that comes an ambivalence to a lot of media. For example, all this election drama. It gives average Aussie Joe a chance to think he has some say in the direction of the nation, some control over how the country is run. I can listen to all the campaign bullshit, accusation and blaming, with knowledge that it will all roll on after the election much the same. Let me think. Menzies was PM all my early life. Holt, (McEwen) McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison, Albanese. I have no feeling of need to discredit any of them. 8 Libs, 6 Labor. For all the debates and arguments, everything rolls on. From my position, of insulation by experience, I think the most important thing is care for the environment for future generations. I have no grandchildren, my time in this mortal plane is coming to an end. But when I see women (mainly ladies but also families) in the street or shops with babies or toddlers I think how wonderful life is and how grand they are to face the future with optimism. 

I hope the political entities can make it so, that Mother Earth will remain habitable for humans to live healthy clean lifestyles, so that the children and babies everywhere can reach my age and look back as I do with pleasure and happiness. And with some optimism for their children and grandchildren.