The Digital Age: a Scanner!


I usually don't---and I usually won't--- put pictures of people on this blog. However, I think Papa and Mel would have both liked this one that my mother took years ago...

I won't say much about the picture; their posture, and the light in their eyes says it all. Some things--not all--seemed so much simpler then. I'm glad so my mom photo-documented so many happy moments. I wish I could have the younger, healthier days back again; through the photos, at least I can have the memories.

The main point of this post, then, is to share my excitement. I just got a photo scanner! Over the next few months, I'd like to digitalize a lot of photos, so that the single enduring copy of some precious photos won't feel so fragile. It also will help organize the pictures and make them more shareable. In this year of death, photographs have become so important to me. There...I want to look at the picture above, once again. I wonder what they were laughing about!!!! I wonder what I would tell my sister-the-toddler and my still-brown-haired grandfather...

Last August, when I started the blog, I felt the crush of impending mortality. Today, the spring is bursting forth in color and light and song. I don't feel dread right now; rather, in the style of Emily in Our Town, I feel an intense need to notice everything, to take in every bit of contact with the world that I can. I want to use my words and my songs and my photos (and my scanner) and my seedlings to celebrate and express everything that matters to me. I am so alive.

And yet, even the living exuberant must sleep. The photos and illuminated computer screen will wait for another day. Maybe the memories will greet me gently in my dreams.

Comments

  1. NiccoleMay 6, 2008 at 12:50 AM

    Yay, scanner! I have a printer/scanner combo that I don't know if it is compatible with my mac and that needs new ink. I don't think I have very many photos that I could scan (mom and dad were kind of poor for a lot of my childhood and cameras were expensive.) But There are a handful I want to make digital copies of and move to photo albums before they get ruined. But lately I have been trying to take more pictures, especially since I own a decent digicam and I really want to have those memories easily accessible. Good luck with the project!

    ReplyDelete
  2. beckyMay 6, 2008 at 3:25 PM

    I know it's so very cliche, but that picture speaks a thousand words! It's just so sweet, all the joy in that photo; thanks for sharing it (and Rutebega, too!). It's nice to have a ray of sunshine come into a regular old farty workday.

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