May 15
Memories
“Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will teach you.” Deuteronomy 32:7 (HCSB)
When Stephen and Farrell set their wedding date, one of the requests they had for us was to digitize photos of him growing up so they could make a PowerPoint presentation for the reception. I broke out an old scanner from a cabinet and hooked it up to my computer, only to remember why it was in storage-it didn’t work. After throwing it away, we got a new one and began converting memories into pixels. The three of us took turns scanning and I cropped and edited each photo and after a week of evenings, we mailed twenty years of Stephen’s life to him on one CD.
Now we’re in the process of doing the same with the rest of our pictures. Perhaps some of you are involved in the tedium of lining up pictures on the scanner bed, scanning, cropping, editing, categorizing and saving your memories. We’re not near done, but every now and then, Susan and I interrupt the work to look at what we’ve accomplished so far.
We networked Susan’s computer to our TV through TIVO, so we are able to watch a slide show from our computer on the TV. Sometimes we watch in silence. Other times we laugh or comment on how cute the kids were, how funny our old hair dos were and how slim or fat we used to be. It is amazing to watch our lives together flash by in three-second increments on our big screen TV. I can’t believe how fast the years are racing by or how blessed a life we’ve lived.
Remembering is good. Longing for the past isn’t. For one thing, most of our memories are so sugar coated that we really don’t remember what happened, we remember some idealized version of what life was like. For another, it is impossible to rewind our lives and live in yesterday.
Rehearsing memories is good. Show pictures, tell stories, and enjoy what was. But then, at some point we have to shut down the slide show, get off the couch and get on with life.
After all, in 10 years, we’ll need more memories to think about.
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
Memories
“Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will teach you.” Deuteronomy 32:7 (HCSB)
When Stephen and Farrell set their wedding date, one of the requests they had for us was to digitize photos of him growing up so they could make a PowerPoint presentation for the reception. I broke out an old scanner from a cabinet and hooked it up to my computer, only to remember why it was in storage-it didn’t work. After throwing it away, we got a new one and began converting memories into pixels. The three of us took turns scanning and I cropped and edited each photo and after a week of evenings, we mailed twenty years of Stephen’s life to him on one CD.
Now we’re in the process of doing the same with the rest of our pictures. Perhaps some of you are involved in the tedium of lining up pictures on the scanner bed, scanning, cropping, editing, categorizing and saving your memories. We’re not near done, but every now and then, Susan and I interrupt the work to look at what we’ve accomplished so far.
We networked Susan’s computer to our TV through TIVO, so we are able to watch a slide show from our computer on the TV. Sometimes we watch in silence. Other times we laugh or comment on how cute the kids were, how funny our old hair dos were and how slim or fat we used to be. It is amazing to watch our lives together flash by in three-second increments on our big screen TV. I can’t believe how fast the years are racing by or how blessed a life we’ve lived.
Remembering is good. Longing for the past isn’t. For one thing, most of our memories are so sugar coated that we really don’t remember what happened, we remember some idealized version of what life was like. For another, it is impossible to rewind our lives and live in yesterday.
Rehearsing memories is good. Show pictures, tell stories, and enjoy what was. But then, at some point we have to shut down the slide show, get off the couch and get on with life.
After all, in 10 years, we’ll need more memories to think about.
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
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