But here, to spark the nostalgia in you that makes for the best motivation to tackle our “Anti-Boredom” page is the opening letter from # 15.
Dear friends,
Isn’t it funny how so many of the most insignificant, even silly, incidents in our lives clutter up our memory banks? While we’re desperately trying to remember the day of our high school graduation or our wedding or some other truly important happening, our minds are cantankerously indifferent to our wishes.
In my case, for instance, instead of being able to remember details about being on the White House grounds for one of Ronald Reagan’s inaugural balls, my mind seems determined to bring up other junk…like a memory of me throwing aerosol cans into the backyard incinerator when a silly lad OR falling off the Jet Ski and thinking I was going to sink to the bottom of Lake Okoboji OR trying to persuade that truant officer that I was swimming in the quarry as part of a high school study project. You know what I mean. Sometimes, your memory is a downright unreliable pal.
But, then again; that’s alright by me for I have learned to be content and even to thank God for having any memories at all. In so doing, I find all of them (well, most of them) genuine gifts that I truly cherish. Examples? Well, I’ve been told that as we age, we are better with long term memory than short term. I certainly find this true in my own experience.
So I tend to especially remember things from my youth – things like spending Saturday mornings scouring the ditches along south Denver streets looking for pop bottles – bottles that were worth 2 cents each. A good morning’s haul could net you candy and pop money for a few days and maybe even a comic book. There’s also the bike rides, baseball games, skating at Roller City, Christmas excitements, dogs, sledding down Rattlesnake Hill, football, shooting hoops all alone for hours, Green Mountain Swim Club, and playing kick the can until the streetlights came on (which meant you had to go home). And of course, there are plenty of wonderful memories of Mom and Dad and Grandma Ellsworth and, if I’m brutally honest, even some sweet memories of my 4 siblings! In fact, there’s one special one I think I’ll tell you about another time.
But for now, have fun with “Anti-Boredom Packet” #15. I sure hope it triggers some marvelous memories of your own!
https://www.vitalsignsministries.org/vsmnew/application/files/6015/9183/5047/WSWK_Activity_Pack_15.pdf
