Years ago, when I still had young children at home, an older lady moved in across the street who over the years became a good friend. She had been in World War II as a Red Cross worker, and I enjoyed her stories of her service in India and the meeting of the man who would become her husband. At some point I saw a picture of her from that time in her life.
The other day, while cleaning out paperwork, I found a poem I had written after seeing that picture. It made me realize that while some of us may be old and not tweet or find our way around complicated websites or know what to do with the 14th portal in our life, we still have lots to offer. The Vietnam War is something I lived through, not just studied. My childhood was in the fifties, and I was young during the Woodstock and Weathermen era. When I add the stories from my grandparents, I can reach back and touch not only World War I, but a life lived in the time of the horse and carriage. All this is shared by many my age and gives us a perspective on the world that a twenty-year-old just does not have. We were young once, but we were just becoming what we are now. The world might take advantage of that.
For better or worse here is the poem I wrote back in 1980
“This is us as we used to look,” she said,
Waving a hand towards twin pictures ---
Young man in khaki
Young girl in braids
No, I thought, not as you used to be,
But what you were
While becoming
You.