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We have just gone through the saddest day of the year, the third Monday of January.
The theory is based on a number of factors, but one that I did not see in there was that January 21 was the day after the last football playoff game and people have realized that there is only one game of football left.

I don’t know what combination of factors affected me, but I did notice a downswing in my mood this last week. It started when I was watching The Jungle Book with my son. At the end of the movie is the song “My Own Home” sung by the girl from the village. As she was singing about how she is fetching the water and some day she’ll have a daughter who will fetch the water, I was remembering how I watched the movie when I was a child.

Now I have a child and he’s watching the movie, and some day he will have a child and that child will watch the same movie. That got me feeling old. Then the next day I heard most of “Summer of ’69” (Bryan Adams) on the radio, and a little while later I caught the end of “Glory Days” (Bruce Springsteen). Those two songs will get you feeling very sentimental, and they just added to the this-life-is-short feeling. I wasn’t feeling sad or depressed, just nostalgic.

The one song that is supposed to make you feel old is “Time” by Pink Floyd. It has the right words and does cause me to think about how time is flying, but it doesn’t have the same emotional quality as “Summer of ’69” or “Glory Days”. So although I didn’t hear “Time” last week, I think it wouldn’t have affected me much.

“Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.”
– Ecclesiastes 7:10

Last week, I read my copy of the Inspire (the alumni magazine for Cedarville College). I know that Cedarville likes to call itself Cedarville University these days, but to me it will always be Cedarville College.

One item that stood out to me was an article about Peace Bears. It is a sad but worthwhile story about an organization that gives teddy bears in memory of stillborn children. That way the parents have a memento and an outlet for their grief. And, as the website says, it allows them to take something home rather than leave with empty arms.
I think the reason I noticed the article was because of the photographer we had take our family picture last summer. She was involved in Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, an organization that provides infant bereavement photography. It was one of those things that I had never even considered before – what to do when your child dies.

“and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
– Revelation 21:4