Memories..........

Memories, those things that are entertaining and over time become even more so as they evolve into new, enhanced memories. Those of you who have been around older folks might have seen this phenomena. A story losses details and gains details and suddenly it is a completely new story. Best part, no one knows that the elements have been changed so you are able to hold the audience captive with the same intensity as when they were first told, version 1.1.

As we have watched this stage in life unfold we are seeing bits of the present disappearing and more of the past becoming a bit cloudy. And for most of it, only we recognize these changes. But every once in awhile he remembers that he can't remember, which upsets him. Then he sees a bird and he has instantly forgotten what he remembered he forgot. I see glimmers of this in my life already. I wonder some day will I be remembering a different reality? This would not be all bad, but most of my real life has been exceptional.

So for me it has always been pictures. I have thousands of pictures, literally. Books, boxes and now discs and hard drives. I don't won't to miss a thing. I believe I got this from my parents. I am so grateful for this annoying yet perfectly divine habit. I have pictures of everything; first swim, first cake, first camping trip, first concert, first car, first job, first school, first (only) husband, first son, first house, and on and on and on. Wonderful. I have piled through these memories on a few occasions this past year and a half with the unexpected loss of a cousin, loss of a dear nephew, the stroke of my father and the graduation of our son. Other moments we have enjoyed spending time in the years of memories from pictures of my husbands family and mine, remembering wonderful times, and we are left smiling.

So I have found that by writing books with pictures instead of words I am able to restore order to some memories for my dad and will be preserving memories for me. When opportunities arise we can reunite with family and be able to show them every moment missed. We can share with friends and entertain them with stories of our lives. And hopefully we will not drift too far off the facts, but when we do, we trust we will be as entertaining as in our more reliable and fact filled presentations.

“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time” Friedrich Nietzsche