Remember the 1973 Sydney Pollack film around the time we met in Chicago while I was attending Podiatric Medical School, called "The Way We Were,"starring Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford, a heartbreaker with a foregone conclusion of two people who are helplessly in love but culturally different? The idea of an unattainable aspiration of two people staying together who were from two different cultures, one Jewish and the other a Gentile (non-Jew) like myself who grew up Catholic. The play and the film featured Streisand’s iconic song of the same name. The lyrics:
Mem'ries light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored mem'ries of the way we were.
Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another for the way we were.
Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line
[If we had the chance to do it all over again, tell me, would
we, could we.]
Mem’ries may be beautiful and yet
What’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget.
So it’s the laughter we will remember
Whatever we remember the way we were...
My answer to the one line of the lyrics: If we had the chance to do it all over again, tell me, would we, could we,
would be a resounding yes: I would choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality. As we enter the last chapter of our lives we are so fortunate to enjoy the continued unfolding dance of life. And that whatever was too painful to remember, looking back on our lives we chose to recall what was beautiful, not painful. For with pain and the pushes and pulls of a relationship comes learning, understanding, forgiveness, and hopefully compassion for each other and the human condition.
Finally, other than the customary rituals of dinner together and flowers, my gift to you is a BIG Thank You. Thank you for your unconditional love, for bearing me/us two beautiful well adjusted wonderful children in Jason and Michelle, for always watching my back, for your patience enduring all my peccadilloes, standing by me through the highs and lows, for making wherever we lived a warm and loving home, and the time and effort you put in to making our relationship strong. How blessed we are to have two precious granddaughters, Lyla and Emmy to dote over. Our lives are so rich because we chose each other, and our love stood the test of time.
