Valentine's Week - 8 Years Ago. Okay. I'm Entitled To Repost Because It Seems Aging Is The Theme of the Day

No grays. I am in my kitchen on Nichols Avenue in Connecticut and I don't see too much white in my sideburns or goatee. I only mention this because today, colleagues and I were talking about the last decade and how much we have aged. In fact, at one meeting we were sharing photos and I came across this one in 2012 and I thought, "Who is that young guy? It seemed like yesterday, but it was 8 years ago."

We've been teasing each other about colonoscopies, walking down the stairs, needing help getting up from chairs, and the strange morphing of our bodies.

Ugh. When I see photos like this I'm instantly reminded, "Damn. It goes fast,"

I remember cutting this heart out, and I think I sent it to Lois. The heart was part of an art project and she, being artistic, was helpful in the design. I sent it to her, "Elephant Shoe," for feedback. It was my first year at Fairfield, a month after defending the dissertation, and a 2nd semester into a new career. Of course, looking at the January date, it was also post-holiday break, MLK time, and right before I learned I had to put together my dossier for the Peer Review Committee of GSEAP. I'm sure I wanted to tear that heart right up during the first year of doing that work. Crazy.

Time is such a whacky creature. I always see myself as forever 15 (thanking Lossine and Abu for that), but it's true that with this Valentine's week coming on, I'm getting closer to 50 than ever before. Looking at this photo, I don't see a 50 year old...but knowing my father's genes, I see that I was lucky to have them, too. He looked like a baby until his late 40s. That was my journey, as well.

Well, Crandall. That's where you are. Same love...more grays.

It's another long day of classes, meetings, and reports. I am, however, thinking of all my fellow (cough cough) late-forty-year-olds and the fact that we are the age of our parents once were when we were in high school/college and, well, we need to hang on to every second, because it preciously, desperately, beautifully, and habitually moves way too fast.

Wow. I love it, but also hate it. Blink of an eye. Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future.