First Day of Spring 2018 . . .

On this 1^st day of spring, though there may still be snow in many places, and in the Midwest tornedos are making their rounds again, these too will pass and spring is here. So, it’s that time again . . . spring-cleaning time! Augh? Maybe yes, maybe no, nevertheless, when weather permits, open those windows, let in the fresh spring air, and clean, clean, clean.

Just like everything in life, organization is the key to process and procedure, starting with making lists of where, what and how to get the jobs done. Like many, closets always seem to be a bane in everyone’s life and is the first place to go to tidy up. However, there is another place where there is a plethora of stuff, not the physical kind, but the intellectual property and pictorial kind. I am talking about what’s in your computer’s hard drive. Augh again.

The hard drive in a computer is meant for storage and is like your long-term memory, storing many extremely important facts about your life and everyone connected with it. RAM, an acronym for random access memory, is your system's short-term memory.

All this is fine and good, but one-dimensional. You can’t feel, smell or hold the memory stored in a computer. I’m not talking about important documents, I am talking about photographs, the ones that show a time, event, person and maybe the very thing you no longer have in your possession: a piece of jewelry grandma wore on her wedding day, the toy truck his grandpa made for him, the funny crayon drawing of her papa juggling. Now, if you had saved these things, how much richer your life could be.   

Now don’t get me wrong. I use a computer every day, writing, researching, and saving all the above. But they are just words. And those words are about the very things that are in our Family Museum. But what is by more important than words, it is the photographs that are so easily stored . . . and forgotten . . . that should be made whole again. Not kept digitized, but printed and saved in a book you hold in your hands or in a picture frame you hang on your wall.

 

And better yet, if you are fortunate to still have the object that appeared in the picture, how lovely it would be to print out that picture and place it in a shadow box along with the item and include a short story about who, when, what and why the picture was taken. Then hang it on your wall or place it on a shelf. That way, you will see it often and be reminded of that moment, that person who perhaps was near and dear to your heart, and event that perchance changed the course of someone’s life.      

So when your computer needs a spring cleaning, or needs to be replaced, be circumspect of the photographs stored there. Be prudent and discerning when selecting the images your print out. I have files galore of picture and I know there is no way I could print them all out, however, here is my suggestion I will pass onto you that makes this task easy and enjoyable. After a vacation and over 200-plus pictures have been taken, I sort them out, edit as much as possible, and put them in a file to go into a photograph album you create online. There are several of these companies that provide wonderful creative choices for you to design as many albums as you want. I personally like the company Snapfish and have made over a dozen albums that are now display on the table in the family room to share.

There are so many facets to having a Family Museum that can be located in many places in your home, including the walls. So clean up that computer, breathe new life into those digital files that are nothing but encryptions, and make them whole again and support your long term and short term memory. For memories tell stories of the people, places and things from the past, that contribute to future histories.  Embrace your heritage. It makes you who you are.