What Will You Remember About This Day?

What memories will you create in 2014?  And keep? My memory is fickle.  It’s filled with holes and gaps wider than I can stretch my arms.  I rely on my friends and family for memories.  And, I rely on photographs.  My photographs.  Those made by others.  That fill old family photo albums or online galleries.  The medium is insignificant for triggering stronger memories and feelings of each day.  But the printed ones I can hold and touch mean more to me.  It’s not the same, holding a computer monitor as it is a photograph.  Or a book filled with memories.  I like this quote by the photographer Aaron Sussman.  A photo remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.  My mom was so diligent at making photographs, printing them, filling albums with the photographs and then flipping through the pages of those albums with me throughout my childhood.  I have not been so diligent.  It makes me feel like I am robbing my children of a tremendous opportunity to grow strong in their own history.  To remember that one weekend, we drove a thousand miles and saw corn fields and windmills and Superman in Metropolis.  Or that weekend when my best friend since eighth grade got married and my baby was her flower girl.  When my baby had no hair because it didn’t grow until she was nearly four years old.  Or this week, when my boy cooked scrambled cheesy eggs and asked me with the biggest eyes and a giggle if they were good or if they were fantastically delicious ponies.  Kids are so weird.  I need to remember these days. This year, I’m vowing to do better at documenting the lives of my own family members.  So I can have memories I can hold.  And my loved ones, too.  I started today, while at a Starbucks meeting with a friend and colleague.  My kids came along with their books and were quiet while albums and canvases and business goals were discussed.  The kids were good.

 I wish I had had my camera with me in the bathroom, but I did get a cell phone pic of my daughter dancing under the hand dryer and making her hair crazy.  Crazy hair, rainbow scarves with her brother’s Batman swimshirt and an ankle length striped skirt are all things I want to remember about this day.