I taught at the local university for 37 years. I had plenty of opportunity to get to know people all over the campus. I taught undergraduates who were working to become teachers in grades K-12. I taught graduate teachers working on master's degrees or getting professional advancement credits. I retired in 2005, 16 years ago. Lately, I have seen evidence that many of the people I have known have moved or died. Quite a few have retired and it is very common for Wisconsin retirees to move to a southern state.
I watched the Pixar film "Coco" and enjoyed it. It is about dying and what happens after death. According to the film, my soul may reside in a pre-heaven as long as I am remembered by any living person. But when all living people have forgotten about me or never knew me, my soul will float off into formlessness.
It is not just people and contacts. It is also fashions and popular words and phrases:
"Bigger than a bread box.
Banned in Boston.
The very idea!
It's your nickel.
Don't forget to pull the chain.
Knee high to a grasshopper.
Turn-of-the-century.
Iron Curtain.
Domino theory.
Fail safe.
Civil defense.
Fiddlesticks!
Cooties.
Going like sixty.
Don't take any wooden nickels.
Heavens to Murgatroyd!" ("Toward the Light" Vol. 28, Issue 16)
I don't seem to weigh less but as with some cartoon characters, parts of me are missing or transparent. More and more, I am not entirely present. More of me has ghosted off, a little at a time.
