I was reminding someone today that although we may look back at our past and we recall it being a certain way, that we keep memorabilia and photos/videos to remind ourselves with evidence what life was truly like.
I’ve always been a sentimentalist, and perhaps for that reason, the job of historian/archiver has been delegated to me. I keep stuff from long ago. I’m not a packrat by any means and I don’t relish the responsibility. It’s been an onerous job lugging all the family’s memorabilia around the country as much as I’ve moved. As a result, cherished things have been broken, I never polish the silver, and the story behind the items that have been bestowed upon me was never told. I have dainty tea sets, Lemoge china, odd artifacts from a civilization that ended in the last millennium. They’ve been more of an albatross around my neck than anything, but I dutifully have them wrapped and safely stored. I have a bajillion wine glasses, and I don’t drink. But somebody somewhere thought it was wise to hand them to me for safekeeping long ago. So I lug them around with me like a comb collects lint.
But I’ve always taken lots of photos. And when we went digital, I was taking pictures of everything. So I have all sorts of SD cards, CDs, and other memory chips lying around. Fortunately, stuff started going to the cloud and to SSDs and other hard drives.
But as time went on and I found myself in Louisville, I started taking a lot more photos. I was married then and was the dorky dad taking everyone’s pictures. I took a lot of them. So my recent past has been well documented. I have quite an archive, and they tell a tragic story.
So I was going through some of them tonight and came across this video of Cecelia, my precious daughter, taking her first steps. And I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to be there when she did it. I consider it a big deal, as I’m sure she does. When I watch it, my eyes well up with pride. I just can’t imagine what more she has in store for us.
https://vimeo.com/mmusgrove/review/373328195/612c3ab19f