Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Freeze Frame
Pictures tell stories. Yet, pictures only seem to illustrate the good events in our lives; the bad is left to our memory. When we look at a picture book or a journal, it reminds us of our mind set and the details we seem to have forgotten. Neither can remind us of the exact emotions which occurred though. You can remember feeling deep despair but it can only be compared to something else which evokes the same emotion. When we look back at the past or try to look forward in our minds, they are like pictures which have not been fully developed. What happened after the picture was taken? Do you remember your little sister making a silly face which didn't make the final cut? Those are picturesque moments too. You don't need a camera to capture life in its fullest.
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4 comments:
Over the years, for short periods of time, I take my digital camera and audio recorder along with me. I take random photos of anything and everything. I put the recorder and camera away for a while, most often forgetting what I had recorded or snapped. A few months later, thinking "What's in these files?" I play and view them - only to be stunned with the feeling of moments forgotten. Suddenly being flooded with a sense of continuity with forgotten ordinary fragments of my own life!
Our lives can't be a movie for that exact reason. They are photo albums; fragments of memory stored away until they are uncovered. This can be a great surprise as you say. Sometimes though, we don't always want to remember certain events so we hide those pictures away. Yet, they are still there. This can prove problematic since they will be much more difficult to confront when when you stumble upon them again. My favorite short story which is perfect for the topic of memory. This is what Anders sees while his life 'flashes before his eyes.' Its an easy five minute read:
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ro/www/LiteratureandMedicineInitiative/20080304/bullet.pdf
First: riveting story.
Question to Haku: Then is the ideal of the Greek classic merely a mirage?
Is the advent of the grinding images of the modern world an unveiling of Truth or an emotional reaction to lost beauty?
Is the loss of the imperfect picture an action of survival or impudence or perhaps laziness?
I hope you see my point in reaction to your comments.
Greek classics conjure up the earlier complexities of human experience and expression to me. That's my mirage. But, the ideal which could be implied by that question would be up to the perceiver. Does everyone in a desert always see the same mirage? While it isn't real, it's sometimes necessary to have something to journey towards before you can find the true oasis. When the illusion disappeared, at first it would be disconcerting; it would be sad to unveil that the image I had been following wasn't truth but a trick of the mind. Yet, this doesn't mean that it's beauty was lost, even as taxing as it would be to take on such a venture. The illusion helped me realize and recognize the full richness of the oasis once I arrived.
This dialogue occurs at the end of the movie The Wizard of OZ between Glinda the good witch who helps Dorthy throughout the movie and her two companions the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. Truth is always waiting. There doesn't always have to be a desert to cross.
Glinda
You don't need to be helped any longer. You've always had the power to go back to Kansas.
Dorothy
I have?
Scarecrow
Then why didn't you tell her before?
Glinda
Because she wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.
Tin Man
What have you learned, Dorothy?
Dorothy
Well, I - I think that it - that it wasn't enough just to want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. And that it's that - if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard,because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with. Is that right?
Glinda
That's all it is!
Scarecrow
But that's so easy! I should have thought of it for you.
Tin Man
I should have felt it in my heart.
Glinda
No. She had to find it out for herself.
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