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.  

Keeping Parents’ Treasures

As you spring clean, be thoughtful of your family history, particularly when you clean out. I have been reading too often how the baby boomer generation is discovering that many of their worldly possession, the ones they painstakingly saved and preserved to be passed down, are being disposed of by no other than their own children they wanted to pass it onto. How sad is that!

This seismic shift of stuff is underway in homes all over America and I am sure elsewhere in the world. Yes, it is true many of the BB generation need and want to downsize their living space and give their things away. Unfortunately, many of the next generation; Millennials to be specific, don’t want the large dining or master bedroom suite. It just doesn’t fit into their transient life styles, small apartments or first homes.

Another aspect that is rather disturbing is how these young adults don’t seem to want their own possessions either. School yearbooks, trophies, T-shirt collections, toys, and all those adorable baby clothes the parents hoped their child would dress their baby in. But why, I ask? What’s wrong with revisiting those yearbooks? Why not save a few of those trophies they worked hard to get? Why not take all those quirky T-Shirts and fashion it into a useable item. And what about those baby clothes? Using them again saves money.

I recently read an article that said 20 & 30 year olds don’t appear to be defined by their possessions, other than their latest-generation cellphones. That they live their lives digitally through Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and that’s how they capture their moments. That their whole life is on a computer. And how they don’t need a shoe box full of greeting cards.

Even more distressing is how a 29-year-old estate marketer (I assume sells homes that will eventually be filled up with the very stuff she wants to get rid of, like old photos, bowls and cocktail glasses) would rather spend money on experiences. Just what does she think will help her remember these experiences if it isn’t stuff . . . souvenirs from a distant land she visited, photos of loved ones and friends that passed on, precious things her family cherished over the generations. And if this isn’t sad enough, her husband echoed, “I consider myself a digital hoarder . . .

if I can’t store my memories of something in a computer, I’m probably not going to keep them around.”   I ask, how can these Millennials be so shallow?  So short-sighted? So superficial? Is their family history meaningless? By time I got to the end of the article, I was fuming. When I read the last statement, I was downright smoldering.

A flippant professional organizer told a client, who should feel insulted, that the three large bags she filled of memories, one for each of her three sons . . . first-grade drawings or boxes with seashells glued to them . . . would not be appreciated. He said, “They made these things and gave them to you and you enjoyed them. The gift-giving cycle is now complete.” How can this so-called professional be so glib? So mindless? Perhaps he was never taught to appreciate gifts given and received? How will he feel when he is old and grey and finds he has no stuff left to reflect the life he lead. One thing for sure, he will have a difficult time healing from the initial loss of the tangible memories he gave away.

This brings me to the subject of my next post: educating the young on the principle of value.

Thursday Toys

I feel I am out of touch with what toys kids play with today. My two have grown up to be stellar adults (no bragging here) and it has been a very long time since I last observed what toys are popular today. So I did some research and this is what I found out.  Kids don’t want toys anymore. They want robots and computers. Here is a few of these tech-based toys that leave imagination at the doorstep.

The Kiddizoom Smart Watch they wear on their wrist that offers games, an alarm, and even a camera that takes and edits photos and records videos. I am sure this watch won’t be worn to school.

You know how kids are always scarred about the monster under their bed? Well, this toy gives a whole new identity for that monster. It is called Xeno, an interactive monster that can display more than 40 different expressions through its animated LCD eyes (scary) has a pull-out snot dripping from its nose (lovely) and can fart to order. (What’s that smell?) I have no words for this one.

Remember when dolls were quit, quite until you made the crying noise. With this new doll, the child needs no imagination at all. She is called My Friend Cayla, and after you read what she can do, I would not want a friend like her. She is an interactive doll that syncs with an Android or iOS device through Bluetooth and understands speech through voice-recognition technology. Questions put to her will be searched online through the paired device’s internet connection, and she will respond by talking the answer. Should a parent worry about what Cayla might say? Oh no! The parent can rest assured that many pre-defined bad words or subjects are blocked through a dedicated app that can unlock different terms as a child ages, such as age-specific sexual educational topics. And what exactly does the child do? Nothing, because Cayla also plays games, tell stories and discusses photos. Discuss photos? I fear what these toys manufacturers will think of next. Oh, they already have. I read that amid huge strides to make toys “non-gender specific,” children simply make up their own minds about what they wanted. What is wrong with gender-specific toys? It must be a generational hang up.

The way we played, our imaginations fired up the toys. We did not need some iOS device or LCD to light up the toy’s eyes. The simplicity of our toys asked or required the child to invest a lot of imagination in playing with them. There was a poignancy in that simplicity. Modern games can be complex and spell out lots of details for children to observe, but toys like a dollhouse, bike, building blocks, and paper dolls, teach instead of merely entertain. A sad point to highlight here is how many toys were meant to be played out in the fresh air while today’s children are very likely to be indoors.

Our family museum is filed with toys. While growing up both my husband and I had only a few toys, but they were well made and played with, and gave us the tools in which develop the skills we have today. What skills are these high-tech toys giving children today? If you know, I would enjoy knowing it.

When next you have a child visit your family museum, take some time to show them what a good toys is. Encourage them to use their imagination. Better yet, give them some paper and a pencil. That is by far still the best toy to play with.

Next Post:  Friday Feature