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 | photographic memory |
Sometimes I worry that I don’t have enough pictures of my kids in outfits that will make them cringe when they look back on them.
And then I wonder if that means I don’t have enough important things to worry about, or if it means I have such a well-trained worry mechanism that I can always find something to worry over. Hmm.
Perhaps more legitimately, I worry about not taking enough pictures of any sort. Weeks slip by without any photographic record whatsoever, and when the kids are little, weeks can represent a lot of change, right? And we don’t even necessarily remember to capture the big stuff. There are whole birthday parties that we’ve missed documenting somehow. Plus, even when we take pictures, we never manage to have them printed, so my kids’ childhoods are only virtually documented. Not really documented. You know?
On the other hand, the pictures I do have in print—from that long-ago time before digital cameras—even those are in a box in the top of my closet. Not organized or looked-through, ever. But at least we have them. I think I’m okay with just having the potential to organize our memories at some later date, even if I’m not getting to enjoy the pictures right now.
But that does mean I have to take pictures. Now. So that I have them later. And now I’ll worry about that for a while, until I forget (and thus forget to take more pictures, perpetuating the cycle of worry. Which is something else to worry about).
I’d like to think that 1) it’s more important to enjoy what’s happening right now than to photograph what’s happening right now; and 2) the children could, at least theoretically, grow up to be well-adjusted adults even without any childhood photographs whatsoever. But those are just theories. Possibly I’m wrong on both counts. (Okay, I’m probably right on at least the first count, but enjoying and photographing aren’t mutually exclusive, so it’s not really a fair comparison.) (And on the second count: I’d hate to be wrong and only figure it out in retrospect.) Hmm. So. Picture-taking it is, then. As a bit of parenting insurance, if nothing else.
I think this post was written for me, no? Yesterday we had Max’s third birthday party. By the skin of my teeth I DID remember the camera AND the little flip video camera HOWEVER, there are huge moments of our lives that have gone undocumented.
And virtual memories? Yup. I’m with you there too. No photo albums or scrap books (who has time?). Only a few pictures in frames of the first born when HE was a baby. But the kids hound me to see pictures all the time on the computer. So I feel like I am depriving them. And I have grand plans to frame my favorites and put them on the wall going up the stairs…if we ever get to finishing the job of the half-painted stairs.
Whenever you want to do one thing it’s like you have to do five OTHER things just to accomplish it.
Sigh. Sorry for the long comment.
I -heart- long comments.
And: Yes, exactly. Five things AT LEAST.
ah yes, pictures. there is the fact that i forget to take them coupled with the fact that i never print those i have taken multiplied by the fact that my hard drive chose to crash so i lost the few i had taken. to the power of not having a single baby photo printed, framed, no scrap books made, no baby books, no paper trail of my children’s existence at all!
fantastic. i have no parental insurance. abort mission. seek solace in a glass of wine perhaps and saving up money for their future therapist(s)?
I hadn’t thought to start saving for their future therapy needs… that might be a more useful form of parenting insurance…