For anyone who has ever gazed on an image or listened to the echoes of the past and wished to have been a part of it. For anyone who has ever been in awe of the genius or accomplishment of a person long dead and shed a single tear from the dual sense of loss and fulfillment that that brings. For anyone who has grasped at the shredded, waving streamers of banners once flown proudly and now all but forgotten…. I understand.
I too regularly discover previously discovered territory and suddenly need to delve into every aspect of it to find some sort of clue as to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. I watch, read, and listen to old stories with the enthusiasm of a child, only then realizing that scores of others have probably already gleaned some sort of meaning or understanding from them. I see the same emotion in a black and white filmed face as I do in the mirror. I hear the same emotions in the early radio voices as I do in my own. And I feel the same feelings that the authors do in the books I read. I see in them the same desperate search for something beyond ourselves that seems to be universal if not timeless. And out of all this infinite information that there is to glean in the world, and perhaps beyond it, I still can’t help but suspect that it will take more than a lifetime to summarize it into one definitive and neatly edited answer. And if and when I do, I would be content, honored, and somewhat ironically amused if the answer just happened to be… 42.
