Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-- Robert Frost
Last night as we reassembled our room, my husband went through some poster tubes that had been languishing in a corner by his dresser.
"Hey, I think some of these are yours," he said. He carefully unrolled a stack of old posters. Immediately I recognized them: my old Top Gun movie poster, a library poster that said "READ" with a photo of Michael J. Fox holding a book, and one of Patrick Swayze. I didn't see any in that pile, but I recall a number of pin-ups I had of Michael Jackson too. All these guys that I thought were so cool (or maybe "hot") when I was young.
Then it struck me - life has had its way with many former teen idols. And it hasn't been pretty. Michael J. Fox struggles with the devastating effects of Parkinson's disease, Michael Jackson is gone and as of yesterday, so is Patrick Swayze. Going, gone. When I was a teen these guys all seemed so vibrant, so full of life, even larger than life. But I'm no longer a teen and they no longer have that same hold on life. Frost summed it up well: "Nothing gold can stay".
4 musings:
Know the feeling, in a slightly different way...
Love that poem...
strangely, i know that poem from sophie's "baby shakespeare" video.
Kelly - I think you captured more of Frost's original intent. I love that poem too. It's one of the few I have memorized.
Cheryl Lynn - Baby Shakespeare? But it's not Shakespeare - it's Frost!
Bonus points to anyone who can name the connection between Swayze and that poem!
Love the post...very thoughtful.
Before my son was born, I researched umbilical cord donation...with the thoughts of Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve. Ultimately I was able to donate both of my kids cords to science.
My first movie was Dirty Dancing. My sister and her boyfriend took me and my friends for my 16th birthday. When it went to video, I watched and watched it. Once I watched it with my dad. He did not enjoy it. The movie did give him and I an opportunity to talk about the father-daughter relationship in the movie. I believe that it created a bonding experience between us.
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