And the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view
And we’ll live a long life
— Mumford & Sons, Ghosts That We Knew

My vehicle turned 100K yesterday, which in itself indicates nothing more than time and mileage together. The very point where it digitally flipped from 99,999 to 100,000 was a point on Interstate 495 known for being a choke point. Sure enough, I was in traffic barely moving when the odometer flipped, and took a picture for posterity in the relative safety of not really moving much at all. If I’d had my druthers, my truck and I would have done 100K on epically beautiful roadways while circumnavigating the continent, but alas, most of us simply drive from here to there again and again. The location was appropriate for the places in the northeast I’ve driven to. And just like with any other birthday or anniversary or milestone achieved, I simply kept on going.

Earlier on this same trip, while taking the train from New York to Boston, I looked out at the Thames River in New London, Connecticut as we crossed the bridge there. Just upstream I saw the Coast Guard Bears Sailing Center at Jacob’s Rock, which back in the days when I rowed was roughly the finish line for the 2000 meter course. Sitting on that train looking upstream at that spot, the entire race came back to mind in a flash, with a different version of me sitting in the five seat. We ended up losing that race when we stopped just short of the finish line. Call it home field advantage or an oversight on our part, either way I never got a Coast Guard shirt.

The thing is, we often cross paths with the ghosts of who we once were as we navigate the world. The train track itself has carried many versions of me to and from New York, the stairs that I walked down this morning have known a quarter century of me as I’ve known each step. Every day is a milestone, every familiar path carries some older version of us we may revisit. Life is change and familiar routines, all rolled up into a bundle of memories. We may hold on tight to them or let them drift away until some random glance brings them back into view. ’tis best to give our ghosts a nod and keep on living this life in the now. One day it will be today’s version of us that will be the ghost. Just what will we think of it then?