{"id":208,"date":"2009-06-22T21:54:22","date_gmt":"2009-06-23T02:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/?p=208"},"modified":"2009-06-22T22:34:20","modified_gmt":"2009-06-23T03:34:20","slug":"the-last-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/?p=208","title":{"rendered":"The last four years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lot changes in four years:  people arrive and people leave.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/picasaweb.google.com\/lh\/photo\/KBGYWIhqqIIQeLUiu90UHQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmVss7IhbmxSQ&#038;feat=embedwebsite\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lh3.ggpht.com\/_2roxcP1oE-k\/SkBC-6KviRI\/AAAAAAAADJA\/4ZlcKPL3M64\/s800\/photo-1.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I keep having this dream over and over &mdash; it&#8217;s not so much a dream that I have at night, but a recurring sort of daydream, some sort of metaphorical interpretation of reality that keeps popping into my head.<\/p>\n<p>I imagine my whole life as a long movie, complete with interesting characters, plot twists, adventures, and so on.  The movie is wrapping up and preparing for a sequel.  My wife and I are in a big grassy field, and my parents approach to say good-bye.  &#8220;You&#8217;re leaving now?&#8221; I ask dumbfoundedly.  &#8220;You don&#8217;t need us anymore, and our work here is done&#8221; they say, and then give me big hugs.  I hear the distant giggles of two small boys coming over the hill towards us.  &#8220;Be sure to pass on the love,&#8221; they say, &#8220;and remember everything we&#8217;ve taught you.&#8221;  And then they romantically mosey off into the sunset.   As I watch them vanish, my two sons crash into my legs giggling, asking for attention.  And then we cut to credits with happy music.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe the human mind really does store all experience in the form of stories.  Or maybe I&#8217;ve just watched too much Hollywood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot changes in four years: people arrive and people leave. I keep having this dream over and over &mdash; it&#8217;s not so much a dream that I have at night, but a recurring sort of daydream, some sort of metaphorical interpretation of reality that keeps popping into my head. I imagine my whole life [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.red-bean.com\/sussman\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}