tallying up the past
it's spring cleaning time, with a ferocity and urgency I've not experienced in a long time. We're moving soon, from a place with a basement, garage, attic, and multitude of closets to, firstly, a 10x10 foot storage room and then into a one bedroom apartment with one closet. The carefree collections over time must now be vetted and parsed.
So this time it's more than just sweeping out the usual chaff that settles over time. It's time to cut closer to the bone and separate the still-desired-and-possibly-useful from the essential.
I went through my various boxes of pictures and albums, condensing them down into the keepers. In the end, I had just one shoebox of photos, which shows that I take a lot of crap pictures. When I look at my pictures folder on my computer it lists over 12,000 photos which I'll probably never have to sort through in this way. How many of these are crap? probably at least half, if not more. But I will probably carry them from computer to computer until the end of time.
It's an exponential process. My mom has a few dozen photos of her childhood. I imagine my kids will eventually have personal video cameras that record every moment of their lives, but when searching the archives they'll never be able to find the moment they're looking for.
Would I forget some things if I didn't take pictures of them? Maybe. Would I remember other things better if I didn't take pictures of them? Also probably true.
So this time it's more than just sweeping out the usual chaff that settles over time. It's time to cut closer to the bone and separate the still-desired-and-possibly-useful from the essential.
I went through my various boxes of pictures and albums, condensing them down into the keepers. In the end, I had just one shoebox of photos, which shows that I take a lot of crap pictures. When I look at my pictures folder on my computer it lists over 12,000 photos which I'll probably never have to sort through in this way. How many of these are crap? probably at least half, if not more. But I will probably carry them from computer to computer until the end of time.
It's an exponential process. My mom has a few dozen photos of her childhood. I imagine my kids will eventually have personal video cameras that record every moment of their lives, but when searching the archives they'll never be able to find the moment they're looking for.
Would I forget some things if I didn't take pictures of them? Maybe. Would I remember other things better if I didn't take pictures of them? Also probably true.
random bits cobbled together by j-dub
2 Comments:
I haven't moved in over 5 years. The idea scares the shite out if me.
"I imagine my kids will eventually have personal video cameras that record every moment of their lives, but when searching the archives they'll never be able to find the moment they're looking for."
That is a beautiful sentence.
I sometimes wonder how many things in my past I remember as the picture I have of them, rather than how they actually happened.
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