I heard someone once say: “The past is the part of your life that anyone you meet can never be in.”
This doesn’t really mesh well when you’ve known someone for 50 years. There are some really memorable moments where you exist in my past. But today we have something we never had before. A future. Together.
I marvel at using the future tense with you. Words and phrases such as: “we will” and “arriving soon” and “meeting tomorrow.” These things that we now say, present a new landscape of expressions. Of ideas. Of dreams.
It can be difficult at times to hear about your experiences over the past 50 years. I have to have a firm grip to avoid feeling a sense of loss. There is so much of your past in which I wish I could have been a part. But as noted above, you can’t be in someone else’s past. At least in our case, not much of it.
Hearing the excitement in your voice when we talk about our future keeps me focused ahead – and away from the past. English teachers used to drill us about the imperative of using an “active voice” in our writing. Now, its using the future tense.
We will.