Suebob asked the other day whether we “bathe in past glory, or nakedly march into the future.”
I responded that most of the time, I am too busy with the present to spend much time on either the past or the future. I realized that as a parent, I have become both more and less nostalgic than I once was. If I grew too attached to all the kid stuff in my life, I would DIE in an avalanche of clutter. So I purge, often. But there’s really no way I can bring myself to throw away an old envelope on which Opie wrote (really wrote!) “JO JO.”
Thank goodness for my blog and my mother. The latter has organized, edited, and printed all of my digital photos from the past 7 years and put them in albums for me. And the former helps me remember that time we went to the “requarium” at SeaWorld and saw the Shampoo show.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Amen! And do you rent your mom out?
I could use your mom’s services too…and yours to help me purge some of this stuff!
Your mom sounds awesome! My mom still doesn’t know how many w’s to type in a url. She’ll go, “Is it w-w-w-w dot com?”
LOL! I agree with the other commenters! I need a mom to organize my chit, too. Or a wife. Or a maid. Or all 3.
All your photos? Wow!
The only thing I’ve managed to do is create a backup DVD of the best 2008 pictures so that I can leave a copy at my parents place too, just in case. Next, 2007. We’ll see when that gets done . . .
The other day I uploaded all my (worthwhile) pics for the last 7 years onto my ipod touch. 7 years ago being when my first child was born. It was extremely disorienting. I felt really sad for those little kids who no longer exist. I missed them. WEIRD.
My husband’s brothers and sisters are huge storytellers. They love to sit around a fire and drink and tell funny, crazy stories about when they were younger; they even retell stories they heard through their parents. That’s not disorienting at all. With storytelling it’s like you’re bringing those past times closer, whereas images just push them further away. For me, anyway.
I am in the middle of doing exactly this right now. In fact, I have been in the middle of it for several years! Its one of those jobs that I MUST do but never get around to finishing. I have so many photos, and at present they are organised but not exactly how I want them to be. Send your mum ASAP!
Oh god i need your mom. I don’t have one photo album with my younger daughter.
I wish my mom would do that. I bet there’s a good business there: Photo cataloging and organization.