of photographs and memories

02.04.2016 - facebook turned 12 years old, and like any little jr high schooler, it got all dramatic. on it's birthday, facebook introduced a video stitch feature you can use to turn your photo album into an automated slide show. who doesn't like a slide show?? nothing like a trip down everyfreakingbody's memory lane.

thing about pictures is that they are flat and soulless. the only life that pictures have is the life our memories imbue them with.

like, i have on my phone a snapshot of the view from a seat in a football stadium. it's not much to look at -- crowds milling around, some people in their seats, orange-clad marching band on a green field, bright sun in the big blue sky. it's marked by nothing moreso than its normalcy - it couldn't be more like another 50,000 such pics. but to ME, it's special. i look at that shot and remember... the adrenalin-juiced giddiness of having just jumped off the money cliff and spent more on a pair of scalped tickets than we'd normally pay for a pair of shoes... the thrill of hunting just the right souvenir, trekking from merch stand to merch stand tracking the dwindling supply of logo caps, constantly one step behind until (joy and relief!) we obtain what could be the very last one... being surrounded by our team's fans, boisterous and confident as the overdogs, certain of impending victory before the game'd even begun... the pressing heat of the too-close florida sun, rendering me dazed and bleary, so hot and with my bronchitis so recent that i could close my eyes and drift into sleep, right there in the midst of the madding crowd...

to you, it's just another picture of just another pre-game stadium, but to me, it evokes specific layers of emotion and experience that combine to form a unique memory. when i look at that picture, i can still feel the echo of that good, good day.

that's why we like so much to look at our own pictures and couldn't care less about each other's. that's why being subjected to vacation slides is such a well-known metaphor for dazzling boredom. i mean, i might look at your pics and be all, great, great, looks wonderful, but all i can think is how boring you are and how lucky i am not to be you.

what?

you know you are thinking the same thing about me.