A School Photograph

Out of the blue, somebody from my old school got in touch yesterday. I was sent a photo that I don’t remember ever seeing, of myself in the official school football team photograph. Yeah, I was exceptionally OK at football.

Apparently though, before my later physical exploits, I was a very gentle baby and toddler. Not very tough. Somebody who knew me back then, and heard about my later footballing “career”, couldn’t quite believe that I even played football. Let alone got into the school team.

And the me from then until now has undergone a million other unexpected changes.

How can we ever know the end from the beginning of anybody’s life. I’ve written songs for all five of my grandchildren, in which I try to grasp at some essence, some fundamental characteristics, of their early lives. It’s quite possible that, in the future, they and I will look back at these songs and hardly recognise the person described.

So it’s hard, but perhaps helpful, to approach our times with other people as though everything that has gone before in our relationships is as ancient as A School Photograph. As well as giving ourselves a chance each day to reinvent ourselves, perhaps we can give others, especially the people we are closest to, that opportunity as well.

Because even yesterday is history.