The River and the Changes It's Seen

One of the amazing things about this era of worldwide connectivity is how you can reunite with people you never actually knew and yet knew of. Sometimes it's a heartening experience and other times more disheartening when you discover the person behind the facade is someone you would never choose to otherwise know.

I never really have had that problem since people I've known in 61 years here on the ant farm are well rid of me when we go our separate ways and relief, not regret is what they more than not feel. If I had a dime for everyone with whom I had lost contact who was happy when we re-established it, I'd have closer to four cents. So much for change I can believe in.

I'm on a message board of an organization I was in a long time, over thirty years past, with hundreds of members from various eras with cohorts and generations of folks who worked in all aspects operation. Some people worked there for many years, spanning decades and are touchstones for a lot of us who don't really have a lot in common. It's nice but it can set you up to get hurt if you don't tread lightly.

One of the group posters, who is (and this will surprise you) considerably older than I am, shared that he's about to return to the work force (in this case, radio broadcasting). He's very much old-school, with a great voice and terrific phrasing, very important a generation of broadcasting ago.

I was discomfited years ago to discover he was nothing like the icon I had admired professionally for decades when through our joint membership in the group, I had the opportunity to get to know him as someone beyond the microphone. Crestfallen might be a word I'd use, or chastened by the encounters and I avoided his postings by not dropping by the group board.

So in recent days when I had a note from another former colleague asking me about  the pending 'return to the arena' I had to catch up on a lot of postings including one announcing he was "...ready to kick a$$ again." I hope he does but perhaps on his way to the studio that first day 'back' he'll pass a river, not unlike this one, that will  give him pause and food for thought.

It's important to realize no one enters the same river twice because both the river, and you, have changed. Not always for better or worse. And to remember in this universe, change is the only constant and our only constant companion.
-bill kenny