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Rhona Canoy

SO… I started out writing a draft for my column this week thinking on mortality. But somewhere along the way, my easily-distractable train of thought took a turn and led me to a new place, with wonderful new and strange things to ponder.

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My mom is still thankfully breathing at almost 93 years old, and I have often wondered what it would be like to live that long. Frankly, I have no current plans to deplete available oxygen longer than I need to. But I often imagine what it would be like to be in her shoes. And I’m awed at the things she has seen in her lifetime.

This got me to thinking about all the amazing things that have happened on my timeline. As a little girl, I took electricity for granted. That the lights would go on after dark was nothing new to me. But many other things have since evolved.

The very first time I held an iron in my hand was an exciting moment for me because it meant I was old enough to help with serious household chores. It was a big, clunkly iron thing with a wooden handle which had to be fed red-hot coals for it to work. It was heavy and if one was inexperienced, it didn’t take much to burn a hole through one’s Sunday best. And after the ironing was done, the flat surface had to be waxed so that it would be ready for the next time. Modern irons almost do the work themselves.

We didn’t have television in Cagayan de Oro until my Tito Henry Canoy brought it here in the late 1960s. It was black-and-white with a manual rotary dial and it sat in the middle of the living room (for those lucky enough to have one), and was treated with an almost god-like respect. We watched The Twilight Zone, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and the historic moon landing. TV only was available for five hours each day, from four to nine pm. How wondrous that was! Nowadays, the TV runs all the time, in languages not always understandable to us.

Clothing had rules. Little girls didn’t wear heels until they were in high school, and little boys wore short pants except on Sundays for church. As much as I hated it, I had to wear girly clothes even for playtime because jeans didn’t come into fashion until I was almost done with high school. These days, people wear anything they want, sometimes with no regard for decorum or appropriateness.

So many other things, which can just as easily lead my wandering train of thought to another station. So let me get back on track.

I always wonder what it would be like to be my mom’s age. And, with disdain, I think about what it would be like to be a teenager right now. That’s when I found myself in mental Disneyland.

No matter how hard we try, we’re never going to have any idea what it would be like to be any age, except on our own timeline. We are what we are because of the composite experiences we have lived through. We can’t even count what lies ahead. The part we never even consider is that each timeline is separate and unique and cannot be compared or equated to another.

We cannot expect anyone to completely understand what we are because no one else can know that except ourselves. No matter how close we may be to another person, no one can live our life and be affected by events in the way that we are. No matter how much of a conformist anyone can be, no one person can ever be exactly like another.

Someone said, “At any given moment, that’s the youngest you will always be, and the oldest you have ever been.” So in a way nothing makes sense except the here and now. For each of us. So take a look around and be amazed that you got this far, and be even more amazed that you can go further… where no other human being has gone and no other human being except yourself will ever go.

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TRAILBLAZER. Established in 1989, Mindanao Gold Star Daily aimed set ablaze a new meaning and flame to the local newspaper industry. Throughout the years it continued its focus and interest in the rural areas and pioneered the growth of community journalism.