Blog 2439 – 06.29.2022

The Time Of Your Life

My son Jay and his lovely wife Lauren spent their first week as man and wife in Key West just a little more than a year ago. This week they will be enjoying the sun and surf in Hawaii. They both have good jobs, she as an RN and he as CPA so they can afford it, they work long hours and have no children yet, or even on the way, so they are enjoying the time of their lives. My wife and I and Lauren’s parents all four are looking forward to grandchildren, but know how important these “salad days” are. In our rush to have it all many of our generation hurried past them or skipped them all together.

I have been watching HBO’s new hit series The Time Traveler’s wife. I read the book when it came out years ago and have watched the movie countless times, but am quite impressed with the depth and fullness of the new incarnation of a fascinating story. Claire, the time traveler’s wife, has known her husband since she was six years old. He has popped in and out of her life at various ages since then. And much as he might have appeared to be grooming her the opposite is more true. She even from a girl has been making him into a better man, rescuing him from a life of only mourning the mom he lost as a boy all the years he spent bouncing aimlessly through time till that fateful day he met the great love of his life, the lovely red-haired Claire Abshire.

The two actors picked to play the lead roles are wonderful and their American accents are flawless. Only in interviews would you ever know they were not from the Chicago area where the story is set. Henry from his travels already knows that Claire will out live him and that she will endure a lot of separation anxiety, the pain of many partings, and hours and days just waiting like a sailor’s wife for her wandering man to return. He also knows that five time traveling babies will leave her womb and die before they are born.

Henry asks his dad before marrying Claire if it was worth it as his dad had lived already more years without his beloved wife than he did with her. His dad says, “Yes, because of you. But give her a child as soon as you can.” That is complicated, isn’t it always, but read the book, see the movie, or watch the series to see how Henry and Claire find out as all true lovers do that love at best is only ours to enjoy for a few days, the time of our lives.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HM7aWHayhA0HwKeBRtBXmSi06LgQepnY/view?usp=drivesdk

Travelin’ Man

Author’s Note: On my way to South Vietnam in January of 1970 the plane made a brief fuel stop in Honolulu, Hawaii. We were on the ground only a couple of hours and were not allowed to leave the terminal, but I saw the tropical moon out the airport windows and the palm trees swaying in the breeze. I hope Jay and Lauren have the time of their lives together there this week. The babies will come soon enough.