Heck, it comes up in my house every Holiday season, the history of the holiday. It’s the dreaded memory passed on to each generation. Be it July 4th, Labor Day, Memorial Day there’s always a tradition to behold. And since I am care giving another – alone - by myself, it’s a lot.
The stories get expanded, it’s like a one snapshot memory with a movie loop. Repeated, so it’s not forgotten what tid-bits happened before I was born. Now, with more than fifty years of living under my belt, it’s not really going to shape my life with the lessons expressed in the tale.
Why do I take it? Proximity. My siblings seem to think it’s okay to ignore each holiday with a phone call. Those calls last only long enough to remain in the moment, and what they don’t understand and won’t give up their lives to know their mom with dad’s old stories.
I videoed my mother talking over the slide projector, flipping through the ages and phases of their lives, wondering if anyone cared about my own life. Later, I converted that video tape to DVD, and made ten copies. One for each of the second, third and fourth generations was mailed out each of them.
Since they couldn't show up for their share of the thoughts and spoken words, I thought they could view them at their lesisure. Since they couldn't remember - I didn't want them to loose that thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment