THE BOOK OF LIFE

Addresss Book, Jamestown, NC

I’m still using and revising the Address Book that my wife refreshed seven years ago. After forty years of marriage, more than a few household moves and a few career moves, it seems to be one of life’s little recurring maintenance chores. Sadly, hand written address books are now being replaced by electronic records. An electronic file leaves no erasure trails. If you delete a record or a partial record, the new entry looks as fresh as a newly opened rosebud. But hand written records leave behind traces of memories not soon forgotten.

It’s always prudent to use a pencil in one’s Address Book to facilitate changing the records of people’s lives. Whole records are erased when the relationship connection is either abruptly or slowly severed due to any number of reasons as life happens. Then there is the nomadic lifestyle of today’s American society as we move along to new opportunities, cities and homes. Marriage and divorce always have a major life change effect on names and addresses. Death too is part of the human experience and faint erasures are still reflective reminders of those who influenced us and many who have departed all too early. Two first names you know all too well are reduced to one and an empty space now remains on the page and in your heart. But then there are the first name additions of new births and new life to remind us of the reason for the Christmas season each year. Even there, erasure marks are shadowy reminders of children that have grown to adulthood and moved away, beginning their own address books. And some of them with their new families are then added to blank pages as the Book of Life continues to relentlessly change and evolve, mirroring our own existence as we brace for the challenges and opportunities of the New Year.