Pogue,

Another week gone and a new one lays ahead. Not a whole lot has happened in the last seven days and in times like this it is useful to take stock of the small things.

You listened to the Kate Bush song I sent you last week? A song about the pleasure in recalling incidents and moments from times gone by. Moments that have a certain magic.

On a balcony in New York
It had just started to snow

…and…

Hey there Bubba
Dancing down the aisle of a plane
’S Murph playing his guitar refrain

There, a couple of moments, small things, that have been captured into fond memories, things that bring a smile. I remember a book we used to read when you were a little Pogue about Old Bear and Bramwell Bear who had a box where he kept all his really important things. Nothing in the box had any actual value beyond the fact that they were all attached to a memory, a special memory. A picture, a button, a ticket.

I do something similar. I have a glass vase with stones and pebbles picked up on my travels. Almost all are from beaches but there are one or two from mountains. I refer to them as my “Little bits of the world” and they hold a hundred memories. Some are distinctive and I can recall picking them up in a specific place but a lot have lost that specific connection. However, I can hold them, and recreate memories of walks near the waves, ice on a mountain path and more. They can take me places and fire up emotions attached to times gone by. Times that need reliving over and again.

You’ll have bad times, but it’ll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to.

Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting

I think what I am saying is that the things that often make life rich and bring a smile to our faces are the ‘little’ things. The objects that enable recollection, take us across time to something that was very real for a moment, are aide memories to things that mattered. Then there are songs that send memories spiralling back to us. It’s those small things that, those very personal unique things, that create the best memories. And sometimes, it’s the idiosyncrasies that are what we remember because they stuck out and were good places to hang our reminiscences.

So what am I saying? Take stock of those memories when time allows. Fondle the objects that aide you. Play those songs that engage you at an emotional level, that take you to a place where you can lose yourself and leave this day behind. As Paul Simon wrote:

And what a time it was
It was a time of innocence
A time of confidences

Long ago, it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They’re all that’s left you

Bookends

There’s a whole book of small but evocative memories that you have written in life to this day. Read the good ones regularly and enjoy the feelings. Spend time for you took time to write them. And…go on writing.

Yours, sitting here but thinking somewhere else,

Wic.