I'm a little late posting about the Super Bowl, but it is what it is. We're not really big fans of pro football, especially, this year, with all the flag disrespect, but we kept hearing about the spiritual revival that's been going on with the Eagles and so, of course, we wanted to cheer for the God-honoring boys. Also, my sweet aunt's nephew is Stefen Wisniewski, #61, and so we felt a little connection even if it was stretching it quite a bit. So, yeah, my mother's brother's wife's brother's son, who we've never met, is the center for the Eagles, so if you'd like me to sign any of your Super Bowl memorabilia, I'd be happy to as I'm obviously very closely connected to the championship team, you see.
Anyway, usually, I'm way more interested in the party food and commercials than the actual Super Bowl, itself, and, while everyone was so fixated on the Eli Manning commercial, I was more intrigued with the Aerosmith commercial for KIA for some reason.

In case you missed it.......
So, the once dark haired, tight bodied, often shirtless, rocker Stephen Tyler of the 70's and my decade, the 80's, appears on the scene with the signs of aging etched in the deep creases of his face. It was obvious that the passing of time and fast rock and roll living had caught up with him as he walked over to the Stinger. Cranking the car, he does something unexpected. He slams it in reverse and burns rubber headed backwards. Faster and faster he drives in reverse. Farther and farther away from where he started. Until, finally, he stops and steps out of the car as a much younger version of the rock legend he is to meet a hysterical crowd of screaming fans dressed in their finest late 70's attire. He'd been transported back in time to his prime. The peak of his career. The height of his fame. Possibly what he'd look back on as his finest years.

I suppose the suggestion here by Kia is that if you drive their car, you, too, can recapture all the passions and feelings of being alive that aging can, sometimes, drain from us. And all for a little money down and a low monthly payment. I'm thinking that's a stretch to think a car can bring back the feelings of days gone by, although, I'm sure, if it was possible, we'd all have some place in time we'd like to go back and visit if we could.

It would be hard for me to decide. Maybe I'd stop back in at my elementary school Valentine party and open some dime store Valentines dropped in my decorated shoe box and munch on some conversation hearts and a cupcake. Then, I'd like to go home and change into my play clothes and take the ol' Big Wheel around for a spin and maybe swing so high that the legs of my old green and white swing set would come up out of ground. I'd like to have nothing more pressing to do than to climb trees with my friends until I'm called home to the dinner table to enjoy a meal I didn't have to cook.  

I think I might love to put it in reverse to high school and pull the coiled phone cord under my bedroom door for a couple of hours of good laughs with a friend. I'd like to get in my BIG, first car and pick up all my girlfriends with the windows down and my favorite mixtape in the cassette player. I believe I would like to go back to being oblivious to the cost of car insurance and more concerned with if I'd see Amanda in the hall to pass her the note I'd written and folded into a triangle, while the teacher talked on and on about polynomials. I also believe I would be willing to trade in my current metabolism for that stomach, so flat, you could play Yahtzee on it.      

I know I'd like to go back and rock my children again. I even remember thinking when they were ages 6 and 1 that I would love to freeze time right there. To just stop the calendar from ever turning another page because everything was just so perfect in my world. I'd linger longer in the nights they begged me to lie down next to them in bed until they fell asleep. Maybe I wouldn't be in such a hurry to get up. I'd love to go back to when they sat in the seat of the buggy at the grocery store instead of the low-fat milk that sits there now. I'd even like to suck Barbie shoes and Legos into the vacuum and hear the annoying hum of Blue's Clues while I make supper.

I had lunch with my 93 year old friend, today, and I thought it would be interesting to ask someone who's lived through so many decades and seasons to pick one age that she'd go back to as her favorite. She said she'd like to visit 17 or 18 again because of its first taste of freedom and independence. Something about the excitement of just beginning to chart her own course and choose her own steps stood out in all the 93 years of memories.

There are thousands of times I'd like to go back and visit. I imagine we all have those. Maybe it would be to a time before we suffered a loss that we still carry around. Or to relive the moment of a great success. Maybe we'd like to go back and fix a mistake that still haunts us. Maybe we'd like to return to the time before diagnosis or a separation or a failure. It's undeniable that, sometimes, there are things in the past that look awfully nice compared to the realities of the present.

It's the year of my 50th birthday. One by one, my friends have started celebrating their half-century milestone year. Yes, this is the year of the colonoscopy and the higher powered readers.......and maybe buying a red convertible Kia Stinger and changing our hair color in an attempt to not become our parents just yet. Turning fifty, along with my last baby graduating soon, might be why I was pulled toward the car commercial.

The way I see it, though, the only thing we do by hanging out in the past is to miss the present....and all the new moments that we'll look back on as favorites as more and more years appear in the rearview mirror. It's easy to wrap up in the fuzziness of yesterday and nestle in the warmth of its good feelings, but we can neglect the gift of today if we're always reliving the gift of yesterday. Yesterday is a gift card that's been used up, but, today, well, it's still alive with possibility. There's still time to cash it in on something worthwhile. After all, if we're honest, memory lane is just a place where we romanticize times that were riddled with their own forgotten challenges. I guess you could even say objects in the rearview mirror aren't as rosy as they appear.

"Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14        


"This is the beginning of a new day.
You have been given this day to use as you will.
You can waste it or use it for good.
What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever;
in its place is something you have left behind...
let it be something good."

Author unknown



Y'all have a great weekend!