“Accumulated Memories” (Years of Tears)

While reading John McCain’s book, Restless Wave, I found a better term for my own“Years of Tears” coined a few weeks ago in a blog by the same title.  McCain’s term was “Accumulated memories.”  He tells how he was watching a parade of Pearl Harbor survivors with Senators Bob Dole and Dan Inouye (both wounded in WW II)  when suddenly he began to cry.  He said to Senator Inouye standing next to him, “I don’t know what comes over me these days, I guess I’m getting sentimental with age.”  Senator Inouye without turning his gaze from the veterans marching by, answered McCain with quiet voice, “Accumulated memories.”

McCain felt that Inouye’s “Accumulated memories” fit him like a glove.  He had reached an age, he wrote, “…when I had begun to feel the weight of them.”  He had memories—he had memories of childhood, memories of intense experiences, memories of adventures, memories of friends who were no more, memories of winning and losing, and so many, many more.  McCain was in his mid-fifties when he first heard that term.  John McCain lived and thus added another quarter century’s worth of memories to his life.

Accumulated memories.  We all have a collection of memories at any age, but we really have a big “bunch” by the time we’ve reached three score and ten years.  That bunch of memories gets all mixed up together in our heads and our hearts.  We can’t separate the memories one from the other and we carry the weight of all of them with us all of the time.  Thus, when we hear a particular song, or watch a certain movie, or whatever, the tears begin to flow.  These tears are not shed over that song, or that movie, rather the  song or the movie touches, evokes, or calls forth all of  our accumulated memories and suddenly we find ourselves shedding years of tears.

Please do not misunderstand me.  I am not saying that accumulated memories are the treasure or burden or weight of only those who are old.  As indicated above, we all have, at any age,  an accumulation of memories.   I am not suggesting that old men and women have so many memories that they tend to dwell on them and lose touch with the new memories that come to birth with each new day.  I’m simply saying older folk have a greater accumulation by virtue of their years and that these memories create years of tears.  These tears are not necessarily sorrowful, or sad.  They may be tears of joy and gladness. They are not tears of the moment—or of this song, that movie or event—they are tears out of the full weight of our accumulated memories.  So with John McCain, you and I do not need to be embarrassed and say, “I don’t know what comes over me these days…”  No.  We can just simply say, “It’s Accumulated memories,” and be comfortable with our tears.

The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem