When a car ignores the flashing lights and then in a moment of panic hesitates on the tracks, what happens when the train mows it down? A mess is made, for starters. Many times the train sustains minimal damage and largely remains uneffected, but the car...well the car is a wreck.
What do we do in the moments where the present and the past collide? Times where the present sustains minimal damage and remains largely uneffected, but the past becomes a wreck?
I ran into someone from my past today. Someone that I choose to have fond memories of despite the times of pain. I was minding my business, going through my daily routine (actually riding the train to work), staying in tune with the present - when my train smacked a car (as it were) and I came face to face with the past.
Throughout the course of our cordial conversation, I felt a bit trite. There was once real, deep, meaningful relationship with this person, but today (many years later) it was "how's the family? where are you working? do you keep in touch with anyone from our shared past?" And I've felt funny about that all day long. I guess one can't expect a meaningful relationship from the past to be "normal" as you chat for 10 minutes on the train (I'm not even sure I wanted it to be), but it has conjured up some very weird feelings for me.
While my present will remain largely uneffected (I'll post this and then probably not give my encounter another thought - the train keeps going), somehow my past now seems to be a wreck. There are questions I have...questions about truth and love and depth and relationship...questions that undermine fondly held memories. It's as if 10 trite minutes have redefined the whole of our past - making it less that I thought it was. There's a mess back there, now - and I guess that's okay. Well, it sucks for the car, but the train keeps chugging. I'm glad to be riding the train.
Makes me think of the disciples after the resurrection. Talk about a train (Jesus in the present) hitting a car (the disciples picture of Jesus in the past)...what a wreck!
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