Wednesday 13 February 2008

Moment

Watching Boston Legal last night, a character brought up something that I think about from time to time and had been on my mind recently.

The gist was that we are living our memories as they happen.
I was reminded of this as we walked the trails this afternoon, the ground beneath our feet springy, the sky blue to the southwest and gathering clouds to the northeast. The chickadees giving it max, and circling above us, a single Cooper's Hawk.
No smells, just vibrant colours and symphonies.
So many days like these, but every one becomes a fragment of memory. Then though, then, we were inside of the memory to be.

As when we are young, or were young, rushing headlong to the next moment, unable to appreciate what we have and what we are because we are so sure that things would get better. Yet things were good, so very good, the difference was us, we could never see how good it is to be young and beautiful and full of potential, the future brimming with possibilities for us. We could only see the emptiness in the glass, not how full it was.

Technology comes at us like a blizzard.
On Monday at Writers' Group, someone read a piece about the 'phone coming into a household where there had been none. It was so vivid, like a golden light washing a picture.

And I remember technologies that have come into my life.
There was the time before the colour TV, and then the time after. Before and after BBC2; front loading automatic washing machine, central heating, dishwasher, the video, the mobile phone, DVD, computer, microwave, cable, internet, broadband, mythbox, blog, everything ever faster, sleeting down and each one causing a profound change in how our lives are lived, a before and after.

And still more to come.

6 comments:

Sleepy said...

Twin Tubs, with their own special wooden cutlery.
Laundry taking ALL day and three of us having to hold the 'spinner' down!

Schneewittchen said...

Yes, and the big steel bowl to boil the hankies in and the wringer.
And you're right, it did take a whole day.

Schneewittchen said...

...actually, it must have been an enamelled tin bowl...

Karemay said...

Before the twin tub we had a single tub with a mangle on the top. We used to help catch the sheets as they came throught he rollers!

Sleepy said...

My Nan had a mangle in her garden!
We used to put all sorts through that. Not laundry!

Schneewittchen said...

Nobody expects the Sleepy Inquisition. And they all fear The Mangle.