A FAVORITE ALBUM

This week's Sunday newspaper contained its usual fare of articles, ads and funnies, as well as a clip with the birthdays of notable people. In it I learned that songwriter/musician Paul Simon was seventy-two, and as I sat there with my coffee cup, my mind wandered back to my college days.

In the 1960s, I joined the Columbia Record Club and proudly received my initial albums for a few pennies. A couple of LPs were classical, but most were by pop groups protesting the Viet Nam war, promoting distrust of older generations, or proclaiming what a good society we'd have if we followed the songwriter's philosophy. 

I was in my twenties at the time, and one memorable album was called, "Bookends." It was performed by Paul Simon and Art Garfunckel and contained songs like "Mrs. Robinson," "At the Zoo," and "Save the Life of My Child." I can still remember the words to some of those songs.

Their signature number, "Bookends," had a haunting melody that I practiced repeatedly on my guitar but never quite mastered its chordal sequences. Some of its words were: "Old friends sat on their park bench like bookends... Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun... Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange to be seventy... Preserve your memories - they're all that's left you." 

Now Paul Simon is past seventy, and I wonder if he thinks about those words he wrote fifty years ago. I wonder if he would know that I and many others really do try to preserve our memories with photos and writings. And I would hope by now he realizes that memories are not "all that's left you."

We leave behind who we are, the life examples we've lived, and the faith in God we've come to believe. We leave behind our influences on the young, the aspirations that have moved us, and the challenges we've left for future generations. We Christians leave behind the mark our faith in God has made on us.

We also look forward to a new life with God, a complete life we can only fully know when it comes, an eternal life that comes to us by faith in Jesus. Whatever we may have experienced in life, the most precious thing we can leave or take with us from this life is our faith in Jesus. Without Him, all the rest is only memories that will fade and die.

Thanks be to God we have a living hope, a faith that will not let us down, for it is guaranteed by our Lord Himself. As St. Paul wrote, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Do you have a special memory of a song? Were its words helpful?

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