"My memories are inside me--
they're not things or a place--
I can take them anywhere."
-- Olivia Newton-John
This evening I was thinking of memories and experience and how they play together. I was particularly thinking of purposely trying to save memories, or create a memory by photography or video. It made me think of so many tourists I see that have their camera around their neck, their camera bag and supplies and trying to capture everything they can.
That thought then caused me to think of how many times it seems that the act of trying to save the memory creates something different and cheats the experience.
I remember times when I was younger and how I tried to document as much as possible to create these memories to view later. There are binders full of prints that maybe I looked at once, then they go in the cupboard for years.
In my later years, I take the camera, but record very little--sometimes, not any. Yet all the memory of the experience is with me still and a far greater portion of the event is captured in sight, sound, smell, touch, and emotion inside me and that is superior to any mechanical device. The really interesting part is that though I record every nuance of the experience, by not trying to record it mechanically, or manually, I get to fully enjoy the experience unencumbered. Indeed, some of my best memories are recorded in this way.
It seems that my grandparents on my mother's side spent their lives recording everything in film and movies. I now have them and they are in many boxes, perhaps thousands of photos, many of relatives I haven't a clue about. They have no value since they've gone because their value was to them. This is as it will be with all of my photo records.
The camera has its place, and I love beautiful and interesting photography, and I even like taking photos myself from time to time, but what I have been learning to enjoy the most is the experiences themselves.
"I'm Always Fascinated By The Way Memory Diffuses Fact." -- Diane Sawyer
Spread Some Joy Today--Do something nice twice today. Once for yourself, and once for someone else. Start with you.
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