Picture Perfect

PICTURE PERFECT

It was now four in the afternoon, but I had decided that this day and in fact the entire week were days out of time. In other words, they had turned into days that just floated by. And today was a perfect example: I just couldn’t get my thoughts or plans together even though I had decided it was the perfect moment to go downtown to the bookstore and select this year’s wall calendar. I’m not one for rituals, but selecting the new year wall calendar is my way of marking the passage of time. As I said, the day had drifted by and now at four when I was finally ready to go out, my doorbell rang. Truth to tell I was annoyed and almost ignored the bell; but a series of soft taps spilled out from the other side of my doorway.

“ Fiona, is that you?” I asked..

“Yes it is,” a whispery voice murmured.

Fiona and I had been friends for so long that I used to say that I knew what she would say before she said anything. Now, as I opened the door, I could see that my friend, an elegant woman of a certain age, had been crying but had let her tear-faced image tell the story. She just stood and waited for me to say something; but there was nothing I could say.

In reality, we were both old enough to shrug off the behavior of rude and selfish people and so I was a little annoyed with Fiona .“Whatever it is, you’re alive,” I said “and I’m ready to go on my yearly calendar expedition so you can come along and tell me your story and I’ll tell you about people and their calendars going all the way back to the bronze age and the early, early years in Egypt and other prehistoric worlds.”

Yes,” Fiona said in response to my words. “I know,” she sighed. “It’s going to be elephant time; remember when you told me all about the myth of flying elephants? Now, I think, that If elephants had such talented ears, then maybe there is an AI world just like the one in the Woody Allen film some years ago. So now, are you going to tell me that an AI make believe person took my friend?”

“No.”

“Why wall calendars?”

“ It’s my yearly ritual, so why not….it’s something I enjoy doing. Calendars go back to prehistoric times so there must be many, many myths and many, many stories, but today I just plan on choosing two calendars. And I was going to say just listen to your own heart and your own calendar to mark your own experiences. Only you know the truth of your own feelings; and as an extra bit of information you do know that calendars have always been the timekeepers. They not only mark the time of rituals and of agricultural events but help organize time which has a habit of disappearing too quickly.”

“Everyone knows that if they’ve gone past pre-school,” Fiona, obviously annoyed, said as she slid into my car.

“And if you’ve gone past pre-school,” I answered, “ you know that agricultural time …planting the seeds, etc, etc, needs to be acknowledged because the growing process of plants and vegetables is often used as an example to follow in life’s journey. And, more personally, there are important dates and times and experiences that you treasure. But only you know that your own feelings are asleep in your heart, waiting for you to listen; but in the meantime, lets’ go buy new calendars.”