A retro Tuesday morning....

I've been rediscovering some of my music collection, and have a mixture of Emerson Lake & Palmer, Loggins and Messina, Chicago II (the brushed-aluminum one, with "Make Me Smile"), and Earth Wind & Fire. Among the tunes currently spinning are ELP's Hoedown (their amazing adaptation of the Aaron Copland classical composition), Kenny Loggins' Celebrate Me Home, and EW&F's That's The Way of the World. (In my fantasy world, if I were ever to get the chance to go up in a glider on a clear fall day, the soundtrack for that adventure would include That's The Way of the World - quite possibly one of the most serene songs ever written.)

I suppose there are several reasons for my "retro" mood....there have been several blasts from my past in recent days, and one "close encounter" that really made me think about life, and what I've done with it so far. The "blasts from the past" have come from reconnecting with several people from my days when I was active in the Order of DeMolay, a youth fraternity, back in Toledo in the 70's and 80's. As a leader of my chapter, and later as chapter advisor, I had the blessing to encounter an amazing cross-section of high-school-aged guys from a variety of area schools. From time to time, I've wondered what ever happened to a number of them - so hearing from one young man, and the wife of another, has been a real blessing.

My "close encounter" was a brush-with death involving one of those monstrous, 70's-vintage Cadillac deVille. I was out in Naperville at a church concert, stopped for gas, pulled out into traffic, and was narrowly missed by this black Caddy driving with no lights. It was one of those "oh, $&%#" moments, when I realized how close I came to getting rammed by this rolling battering-ram. And then reflecting on what kind of damage that thing might have done to my little Camry...and to me...well, let's say it provided a significant amount of personal reflection on end-of-life issues...

The rest of the day is going to be filing new job applications, and cleaning and straightening out stuff. One interesting thing is that in my sister's move, we uncovered my father's old Argus C3 35-mm camera. When we rediscovered it, it was kind of a blast from the past, as well...but then the question became, "What do we do with it?" It turns out that in the days from 1940-1956, there were about a bizillion Argus C3's made - the camera, known as "the brick" (because of its shape and weight) was one of the most durable and (for its time) easy to use 35-mm cameras ever. The problem is, in this age of single-lens-reflex and digital photography, what do you do with a range-finder camera? I emailed one of the collectors' club reps, and his reply was, "Keep it for the bookshelf."

The problem is, I don't need any more trash on my bookshelves. I'm trying to weed out the books on my bookshelves, to be honest. I've got a couple friends who shoot black-n-white film, and perhaps they would be interested in it. Otherwise, even on Ebay people are only getting $2-$3 for 'em - it would hardly be worth putting it online. But there's still this voice in me that still says, "But it's your father's camera," like preserving it would somehow preserve his memory.

I hate that voice. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain..."

Ah, well, it's time to get back into life-or-something-like-it....