History

Whom is GREAT? What a question, along with whom is good, perfect, adorable and worthy of emulation. I can ask the flip side too, but I wish to see the sunshine side of life.

I have been noticing a trend, in scrapbooking, and in headlines. We try to reduce everything to short singular and maybe trite phrases. No one but me it seems does more than a single page on a subject or topic. From newspapers to magazines; it HAS to fit on the single page! No continuations, no complete stories, not even a full answering, in complete sentences of the basic journalist’s questions of “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and finally “how.”

I understand the difference between the scrapbook layout created for one’s own family and one created with the intent of being published. But even among those pages we do for ourselves, we try to reduce down to a single page or two. Not all events or persons in real life can be so handled.

Some do a separate album or book, to cover a topic or person in depth. But to me, a chronological scrapper, it takes it out of the context of daily life. It becomes (to me at least) disjointed and disconnected from true reality. A reality that is reflected in the pages of the family chronicles I create.

Earth shattering, momentous events have occurred in a short time, and I try to capture the world “before,” “during,” and “after.” An entire era has been passing away, a world view that is as disconnected from today’s reality as that of my own Great-grandparents worldview and values were from my own. This is happening in less than one generation.

What hard reality now will be inconceivable to our grandchildren?

Okay, let’s go back to the small scale then, what events in the “real world” have had a direct and maybe daily impact upon your own life, and that of your family?

Do you document it? Do you scrap it? Is it even a topic of discussion in the house with your family?

No longer is “history” the purview of a small number of so-called “experts.” We each are “historians” and “journalists” for our families.

Moments

Moments happen; this is what we remember about life, our lives and the lives of others.

Snippets and seconds, sights, sounds, smells; sometimes we can “stage” it, like a wedding, and other times, if you blink, or you snooze – you lose.

The media has this down I think to a science, depending on the intended viewpoint, different people will experience different things from the images and sounds presented for their consumption. We can all experience this with the events of the past week, the final illness and death of the Holy Father.

While the images of his many trips and ceremonies pass before my eyes, I can remember, not the experience of those images, but what was going on in my own life at the time. His struggle with Parkinson’s’ is a fast forward of what a beloved aunt of mine is going through, where he has trod, she soon will.

It is the end of an era, such as in the passing of Presidents and other leaders on the World’s Stage. I went through this when Reagan died, but his was more immediate, I had seen the man in person, I had a very minute part in his time on the World Stage. Whereas with the Pope, I was usually “a day or even hours short,” I never saw him with my own eyes in person.

It’s the same for our own lives too you know, moments. Depending on your experiences, do you remember the good times, the bad times, or that time has passed?

Parenthood is fraught with many conflicts, and these seem to get louder and angrier as the children grow into young adulthood. I don’t remember “battles” with my mother, but my father… “Battle-Royal” would be a good term for them, open hostility and simmering anger another. Now I am experiencing the same, it is no easier, and no less painful. Moments…

Snuggling, and the feeling that life is perfect, that “now” should last longer, topical sunrises and mountain sunsets… Being with those that you love and care for, and that lave and care for you in return. Moments…

This week we mourn a man who was at the same time alone in the world and yet NOT alone, has passed. I wonder how often he had wished for more of those moments… an argument with a sibling, over nothing really, or that hug, or the joy on their faces for your successes.

Take the time to create and remember those moments… in the end that is all we take with us.