Changes

[poliphilo]

We share an address book with my mother- one she started keeping in 1973- and I've been using it to write Christmas cards.  Oh the crossings out and the pastings over!  People move, then move again. They remarry and take other names. They die. Or one partner of a couple dies. Most of the people who had earthly addresses in '73 now have unearthly ones. I wish I could post a photo of a typical page; they are as eloquent of mutability and mortality as a ballade of Villon's...

Comments

[cmcmck]

Je plains le temps de ma jeunesse
(Ouquel j’ay plus qu’autre gallé
Jusqu’à l’entrée de viellesse)

I mourn the season of my youth
(When, more than most, I lived it up
Until old age came upon me).

[poliphilo]

Few poets get under my skin the way Villon does.

[basefinder]

Ah yes, I remember keeping paper address books.

They almost become a brief history of family and friends, when you study and decipher the crossings out and pastings over.

Now I just look at the electronic data on my computer and wonder, is that the newest e-mail they said to use?

[poliphilo]

Keeping records up to date is a problem whatever system you're using.

[basefinder]

That's for sure. Paperless does not equal problemless.