Scott Freeman

You Want To Make A Memory?

I dug up this old photograph Look at all that hair we had.
It’s bittersweet to hear you laugh Your phone is ringing I don’t wanna ask

If you go now, I’ll understand If you stay, hey, I’ve got a plan
We’re gonna make a memory You wanna steal a piece of time
You can sing the melody to me And I can write a couple of lines

You wanna make a memory?

I’ve long been a Bon Jovi fan. I remember rocking to their debut album while watching the 1984 Olympics. I even liked some of the songs on their second album 7800 Fahrenheit.

So, in many ways I have grown up with them. I’ve always appreciated their music and enjoyed most of their disks. I’m a fan of Jon Bon Jovi. He swings for the fence lyrically in his attempt to be the next Springsteen but never quite get there. But I applaud and respect the attempt.

Growing up with them is part of the reason their latest single resonates with me so much. There is something about the power of memory that each of us, nostalgic or not, must acknowledge plays a part in our lives.

Memory is deceptive but it is at the same time indelible. I was a horrible football player but I am about 2-3 years away from being an all-American in the telling of my football days. The extremes are magnified while the mundane is blurry.

Memory fills in the gaps of our lives. I can still remember where I was when I heard most of those songs I post the videos too so often. I remember the snow falling and hearing Foreigner’s “Waiting For a Girl Like You.” I remember sitting in a movie theater with my fellow incoming seniors and hearing the opening riffs of John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire.” I remember coming alive to the power of music the first time Springsteen’s “Born to Run” came over my radio.

Memories are the road-map that make sense of where we are going. I feel this so closely right now because I’m growing older. I know now a little more clearly how the events of my youth have conspired to bring me to this point. That’s not determinism but an understanding that there have been a series of choices and decisions, friendships forged and forgotten, roads traveled and avoided.

Memories are elusive and periodic friends. I celebrated my 20th high school reunion last year. Seeing the people who had once been the most important folks in my life after 10 years was both a blessing and a reminder of so much that has been lost. Promises to stay in touch never fulfilled and appointments never met. I think this is so profound right now because I look back now over such a long period in my life marked by wanderlust and transitoriness. I long for permanence in friendships, for alliances and relations renewed and resurrected.

Memories are glimpses of the eternal. I know that these memories are signs that true friendships may be marked my periods of dormancy but never pass. I carry faces, names and moments with me that will carry with me no matter where I go. For we shall meet again. Everytime I see a familiar name on Facebook or other reaches of this smaller world we inhabit I am stirred by the realization that all of us fall into the arms of a loving Father God. We shall meet again.

You want to make a memory?