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Back Tracks:Lessons learned from ‘auld lang syne’

-The words “auld lang syne” from the popular song sung on New Year’s Day, can be translated as “days gone by” or “old times.”

Since this column is all about old times, let’s think about the questions posed in this song: Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne?

My answer is no – we should never forget our old acquaintances or our old times. Life lessons learned are not usually out of a book. The minute circumstances surrounding everything and everybody in our lifetimes are what shape our lives and make each of the unique person we are today. Then it’s up to us, now as adults, to determine how it will affect us.

I try to remember days gone by, focusing mostly on the good. I do remember the bad times, but try to let those memories slip gently through the cracks in my brain, which as I get older is easier and easier to do.

When I was in third grade, my teacher was reading “Charlotte’s Web” to the class. It was a new story to me and I was enjoying it immensely. Then there was a knock at the classroom door. It was the first grade teacher, who desperately needed to go up to Hall’s Store to buy a pack of cigarettes.

I was sent to “watch” the first grade children, while she drove up to the store for her smokes.

Reluctantly leaving the magic of Charlotte and Wilbur the Pig, I trudged down to the first grade classroom and read them a story, while standing in front of the class. Once, when I glanced up, I saw that one of the students was eating paste. She was using a wooden ruler to dip into the big clear glass jar that held the paste, and was pulling out white globs to eat off the ruler.

I was at a loss of what to do – horrified at what was happening “on my watch.”

But then, a few of the first grade boys got up and pulled the jar away from her.

I learned two things from this episode. One, if a person is addicted to something, eventually the people around them will suffer grief; and two, when you find yourself in a pickle that you can’t solve, other people will usually step in to help.

Another life lesson learned in my young life involved loving to read on the floor, while lying very close beside the round coal stove in the living room, to keep warm. But one time, when I had finished my book and stood up, my arm brushed up against the stove, burning me from my wrist to my elbow. That scar reminds me still to never get too close to something dangerous, even if it feels really good, because you may end up getting burned.

I also learned many life lessons from my mom. As a child, one of the very last sounds I heard at night was the whirring of the manual alarm clock, as mom wound the clock to make sure the springs would last through the night, long enough to ring the alarm in the morning to wake the house for school and job responsibilities. And right before I heard that whirring sound, I would hear the clicking of her glass rosary beads as she set on the edge of her bed, saying her night prayers.

These sounds taught me to try to be prepared, both physically and spiritually, for the next day.

Don’t think learning life lessons from days gone by has stopped for us, no matter how old we are. We probably learned from something that happened to us yesterday. It’s just that learning happens so inconspicuously, and not with a clap of thunder, that we don’t even realize it is happening.

Over the years, we’ve all met tons of people with different personalities, and experienced so many things, both bad and good, which have transformed us into the people we are today. That’s a good thing to remember. But also remember that just as the people we met have shaped us, we are shaping others around us with our actions.

The calendar page has turned once again, and 2018 has now turned to 2019. So let’s “take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.”

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