I crashed “early” last night.
And yet…
After I woke to (and did) use the restroom, I noticed the time.
1:43am.
I was awake and conscious and remembering…as time moved to and through the “One Year Mark.”
Back around 2005/2006, DC Comics did a “one year later” “time jump” in many of their comics. Given “comic time” and how years’ worth of comics might only cover a few WEEKS in-story, it was a hard reference point to truly picture.
At least for me.
Back in 1995, I “discovered” Dragonlance. And one thing that REALLY stood out to me at the time (and has remained with me in the decades SINCE) in that first novel was these characters reuniting after 5 years apart.
I wasn’t yet 15 years old myself and so 5 years was a but over 1/3 of my entire lifetime, and almost more than my particularly conscious memory and self awareness.
I had virtually no frame of reference of “5 years” as a “gap” of time between stuff or people.
As I’ve gotten older, I (semi-? fairly-?) often find myself thinking back to that notion, as I see conscious, aware 5-year timespans of note in my life.
Noticing the 5 years mark since I’d been laid off from my job in Akron. (now almost 6 1/2, and that gets into a whole other train of thoughts).5 years since a coworker there passed. 5 years since starting at Midwest.
Even before that, 5 years (then 10, soon 15) since The Dive/Cru.
5 years after the Kent apartment, 5 years after Streetsboro, 5 years after Cuyahoga Falls.
But again, here, today…1 year.
One Year…later…
And sometimes seems so fresh still.
I’ve no idea what the coming years, another year, or three or five or ten (?!) may hold.
I guess we’ll see.
One year or month or week or day or hour or moment at a time?
The Life of Walt 