We are vintage

I have seen the word "vintage" tossed around quite a bit lately.  It's one of those words like "thrifted" or "upcycling" that puts an upscale polish on reusing an old item.

I've become familiar with these terms through my time spent linking around in Pinterest.  It hardly needs to be said that this Pandora's box can change your life and it's like the best magazine you could ever read because it's full of glossy content tailored to your interests.

I have to admit, though, that I get my feelings hurt when in an ad or a link I see pictured something that was part of my childhood termed "vintage."  In a very limited sense, the My Little Pony toys that I passed on to my daughter (because my mom kept them - thanks, mom), are "vintage."  All the same, they're 30 years old.

Hmm; as I say that, I realize 30 years is a pretty long time.  Still - doesn't vintage stuff need to at least look old?  Shouldn't it be distressed and sepia-toned, and really funny-looking?

I suppose my reaction is partly my fear of becoming obsolete - of needing to be patronizingly pulled from the discard pile and "made over" to fit a new generation's definitions of cool.  There, I guess I needed to say that.

It's also coming from the sense that time has expanded abnormally - that something that happened yesterday can be chronicled in such great detail and word count that there won't be enough room to record history in the books anymore - if indeed in the future books exist as archives and not just artifacts.

Not much in my life has lasted long enough for me to feel I've sustained any meaningful endeavor.  However, I became Mrs. Martinson 15 years ago yesterday, and for the first time, it felt like a really significant accomplishment.  I feel I have made history, even though it is just my own.  It's a good feeling.  

In our history, we have these two kids, these roads we've traveled, these jobs, homes, communities, heartbreaks, recoveries.  All of this is made possible - held together and aloft - by grace.  I have to say, all of those hopes, all of that faith that we had at the beginning, have ripened and matured to something very complex and worth savoring.  Better over time.

So, we are vintage now, and I say that in the most appreciative sense.  We began awhile ago, and have gotten better over time.  Cheers.