The Third Life of Bell-Bottoms

One of the themes going through our lives is revisiting the past.

The past can come around in different forms, including: memories or flashbacks; someone from your past popping back into your life; and trends, to name a few.

And what about remakes? Music, movies, etc.

There are also more negative and larger scale forms like war, genocide and holocausts.

Respect

Years ago, I was driving my youngest to her horse lessons. The drive took thirty minutes. We had an agreement to split radio time since our tastes were so different.

Her music consisted of a lot of yelling and/or aggressive music.

Mine? Classic rock, of course.

On one trip – with her radio time – a song came on that I began to sing along with.

My daughter turned the music down and asked, with disbelief, “How do you know this song?”

I explained that I grew up with this song. This version had more aggressive music, but the words remained the same. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”, Respect from Aretha Franklin. And then there were various artist remakes over the years.

The Third Life of Bell-Bottoms in My Life Time

I wasn’t too fond of bell-bottoms, nor elephant (or elephant ear) jeans when they came out in my pre-teen and teen years.

I didn’t care for them when they showed up again some twenty years or so later.

And they are making a comeback again.

I didn’t want them then, and refuse them now.

The Past Will Come Around Again

All of life has cycles – and it has cycles within cycles.

There are cycles within your own personal daily life. And there are cycles within your town, city, state, country.

The past will come around again – in whatever form – for each of us to make a choice. We have to decide things like:

• Do we want to partake?
• Do we want it to be part of our reality / in our life today?
• Are we going to tolerate it coming/happening again?
• Or, are we done with it?

What cycle is being brought to your attention, and what will you decide/choose?

Oh, and not making a decision means it will come back again.

I am, however, thankful that the 80’s hairstyles haven’t come back.

by Jan Toomer

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