Know Jack #478 It Was a Very Good Year

“When I was seventeen it was a very good year…” the lyrics were originally written by Ervin Drake for the Kingston Trio, but it’s Sinatra’s cover I remember most. As in the song, “very good” takes on different meanings with the passing years.

I never expected to see three score and ten in my rearview mirror, but there it is. The past year was not like all the others. Nevertheless, it was a very good year—after its fashion. There have been times when I was focused on what’s been lost: things like a trustworthy left knee, a strong back to go with my weak mind, why I went into a particular room, and where I was going with this.

Okay, only kidding about the last thing on that list, but I’m not to the end yet. I have come to measure years by things gained and things retained, not by things lost. Strange as it may seem, the intangible and the unseen are easier to lay hold on than the things we see and the physically solid.

Take away my glasses and I cannot read the words I just typed. However, I don’t need glasses to see me reading The Raven for the first time. What’s more, I can still see with the wonder of an eight-year-old the bird perched on the bust of Pallas and its croaking “nevermore”.

I may no longer have the physical ability for some of the antics of youth, but I have not outgrown them. I play them over in my mind with as much immature humor as ever. There are people who should be celebrating my infirmity about now. “I’ve grown older, not more mature. I still can’t name the seventh planet without a mental snicker.

I believe in the grand scheme of life, the intangibles are the true fabric of reality. If after leaving this plane of existence, I will see as God does, perhaps I have a hint at how He sees and is present at every moment.

Someone might remind me here of the mental devastation of dementia. I have lived and worked among those with dementia for many years. I will concede that they may not be experiencing the same reality as the “oriented”. However, they are living in a reality they know well. Only physical limits separate the two realities. Remove the bonds of time and place, and reality becomes one again. The barricade comes down, and it’s all a very good “year”.

“But now the days are short, I'm in the autumn of the year, And now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs, From the brim to the dregs, and it poured sweet and clear. It was a very good year.”

Over the years, I have “lost” nothing.