Hear Jim’s 3-minute podcast at https://youtu.be/ip1CEeB286A
or read his story below…
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Life, actually…
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BUMPER CARS AND ROLLER COASTERS AND LIFE GOES ON
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Blue or pink metallic balloons softly dance around one another above a village mail box. A freshly born life is celebrated with vim and vigor.
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Nearby, somberly garbed neighbors gaze at a carved box as it rests beneath remembrance flowers in a patched green field, with only silent granite witnesses remaining later to stand guard.
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Red carpet welcomings and thoughtful goodbyes are never far apart.
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Let’s call these first and last things Bookends to life. Ceremonial displays. Attention must be paid and all that.
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Tokens and trinkets abound between these bookends. After the long dance, tokens and trinkets remain, reminders of people we once knew.
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The tokens and trinkets may not be important in the schemelessness of things, but they do have purpose. Their presence jars the memory, jags us back to sweet recollection.
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Once we send these silly props to Goodwill, we risk dispatching fond memory into faded vagueness. We risk waking up one day with nothing to remind us that these special beings ever existed.
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So, bits and pieces can outlast people themselves. They can be passed down the generations. They can be our visual genealogies. They can be touched and caressed and hidden nearby, or displayed up front.
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Maybe a flattened metallic balloon in the sock drawer will emerge one day, maybe someone will suddenly smile and recall. Maybe a dried flower from the granite field will be found tucked into a favorite book. Maybe it will strike a note of familiarity in those of us who welcome the indentured images that skulk about in our minds, awaiting reinstallment.
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We begin to understand the meaning of bumper cars and roller coasters. Very few words are needed to comprehend the absolute thrill of unpredictable existence. We bump and bounce and scream in joy and howl in fright. It is one heck of a journey.
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Together, let us experience the journey and hold close the best of our memories.
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It’s what we cling to before coming up against the right-hand bookend
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© Jim Reed 2026 A.D.