Old Photos
“One of
the best ways to make yourself happy in the present is to recall
happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory prompt, and
because we tend to take photos of happy occasions, they weight our
memories to the good.”
Gretchen
Rubin
In these days of
“selfies” and the constant presence of mobile phones with
excellent cameras, people collect thousands of photos of themselves
and their friends, their travels, random strangers they meet,
occasional celebrities, their food and drinks, and any number of
things that do not bear mentioning. Sometimes I wonder how the
“cloud” (whatever that is) can possibly handle the onslaught of
excessive photography we send it. Sometimes, a friend will want to
show me a picture of their grandchild, or a beach sunset, or a
gallery they visited on their most recent vacation, and they
literally have to scroll through pages and pages of photos to find
it. And sometimes, there are so many photographs that they can't find
it at all. I sometimes wonder what having all our photos on our
phones will mean for our future memories.
One of the first things
families do after the death of a loved one is to go through the boxes
of old family photos, usually to divvy up and share around. As
they're going through the boxes, they find memories, and faces of
forgotten people. When my mother died, my cousin Sandy and I went
through all the family photos together. We spent a couple of days
sifting through them, trying to parse who was who, and when and where
the photo was taken. We unearthed memory after memory and laughed a
lot. All our old great-aunts in their print dresses and black lace-up
shoes. Our grandmother as a young woman in her giant hats and
tumbling curls underneath. It was a great recalling of their lives
and our memories of them.
Looking at old photos
decades later, one can see personality traits and dispositions no one
was aware of at the time the photo was taken. We can also look at old
snapshots of people we love, knowing what awaited them as they
traveled through their lives. I ran across this photo of my sister,
Jerrie, and me while cleaning out a cabinet in my basement. I would
have been about four, and Jerrie, perhaps seven or eight. As far as I
know this was the only studio photo taken of us together. You can
already see the differences in our personalities—Jerrie, ever the
“girly-girl,” loved to dress up, loved to look pretty and smile
for a camera. I, absolutely not. I was sober and cautious even at
four. And obviously, I couldn't keep my hands still then either.
I hope that in our
“excessive-selfie-era” we don't lose access to future happy
memories. There is something about pulling an old photograph out of a
box, holding it in your hands long enough to study it, to remember,
maybe even to reminisce, that may be lost in the cyber world. Happy
memories are one of the most enjoyable parts of being human. If you
have favorite photos, I encourage you to print them and pack them
away for future discovery. The people you love will be happy you did.
In the Spirit,
Jane
1 comment:
Even at four you look exactly like yourself. It is marvelous.
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