We had a new boiler installed this week, along with six new radiators, and while this is thoroughly boring information and a gigantic dent to the wallet, it’s also served as a reminder of the impermanence of life. Let me explain…
Behind one of the ancient radiators was some Rainbow Brite wallpaper, a real blast from the past for any 80s kid. It felt like a secret had been hiding undiscovered for forty years, a memory waiting to be brought to life again. I almost got whiplash from being yanked back to my childhood. Down I plunged into a rabbit hole imagining who had chosen it, who the bedroom had belonged to at the time, how their life had turned out. And now, suddenly it was forty years later, and the realisation that soon another forty years will have passed was like a kick in the shin. It was enough to bring a lump to my throat.
I toyed with the idea of ripping it off, (who was I kidding?) but the thought of someone discovering it in the future as I had done was too romantic to destroy. Was I being overly nostalgic? Maybe. Did I care? Not one bit. Life is so strange and confusing and painful but it’s also so bloody beautiful. I find it so damn bittersweet. So, forgive me for finding meaning in a bit of old wallpaper hiding behind a radiator for forty years.
And so, it stayed and so has the reminder of the fleeting nature of life. We only borrow these things for a short while, right now it’s our turn and soon it will be someone else’s’
Someday we’ll be memories and whispers of the past, hidden in layers of wallpaper, and if we’re lucky, someone in the distant future will discover a trace of us and who we were and how our lives turned out.
I did warn you I was nostalgic.