Fun fact – one hundred years ago, Robert was the most popular boy’s name in the country. Today, my name doesn’t make the top one hundred list.
Fifteen years ago, my first book, Actions Speak Loudest: Keeping Our Promise for a Better World was published. This first chapter in this collection of essays was written by former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away last week at the age of one hundred – born the same year Robert was the most popular name in the country.
Seventeen years ago on the day that I am writing this, I became a father for the first time.
Just a second ago, five children were born across the world, while two people died.
The first recorded use of the word “ago,” was in the fourteenth century and it is derived from the Middle English term meaning “to pass by.”
There is something innate about the word that suggests whatever it is attached to is worth noting or remembering. The phrase, “Four score and seven years ago…” perhaps best exemplifies this.
As one gets older, it’s easier to spend more time in the world of “ago-s.” For me it is an opportunity to remember where I came from and how much I have to be grateful for. But it can also be a reason to lament the inescapable passage of time.
It’s hard not to see your name falling from number #1 to off the list entirely as a sign of time passing you by.
It is also hard to believe that my oldest daughter is seventeen. I want time to slow down or stop, even some times to go backwards – the idea of re-living one day with her again as a toddler or coaching her in a soccer game – is tantalizing. Conversely, the realization that her daily presence in our home is numbered, as college beckons in less than two years, is heart breaking.
It is worth noting that while “ago” is most associated with the past, its origin also hints at another meaning – “to go forth.”
Every moment we experience in the present will inevitably become a moment ago and then a minute, a month, a year, a hundred years ago etc. Such is the continuum of time. Yet that continuum also stretches before us. One moment, one minute, one month at a time.
In the end of his essay, President Carter wrote that “God gives us the capacity for choice.” When he passed, his days in the White House were more than forty years ago. There would have been ample reason for him to dwell in bitterness on losing his re-election campaign or look back at that period with regret. Yet his choice was to live in each moment and in doing so to create different “ago-s.” Ones attached to the more than four thousand homes that he helped build or the countless memories created with his wife, four kids and twenty-two grandchildren and great grandchildren.
An hour ago, this was a blank page. Now there is this. Undoubtedly you will make an even more worthwhile “ago” today. Looking back being able to say, “a few minutes ago I helped someone or made someone laugh or took care of someone, something or even myself.”
Looking back at one “ago” can propel us forward to create another. So go forth this week and make some to remember.
Recommendation of the Week: Check out this movie about a different Bob – A Complete Unknown. The performances and music are fantastic. The title doesn’t lie though, if you’re looking to figure out how Bob Dylan became Bob Dylan, this won’t help you. Still worth the watch.
Share this email with someone from some time ago who would love to hear from you.