The other day I had a conversation with my roommate about our generation's obsession with documenting every moment of life. That's the premise of social media. Here's a single page that lists where I was born, who my family is, where I went to school, my profession, my spouse- when we met, our first date, the proposal, the wedding, honeymoon, our four kids births, their marriages, our grand kids, our vacations, our move to the retirement home- all the way up until we pass on from this life to the eternal. Why?
I told her that I thought this was a silly notion- to think that someone will care that I went to a college preview weekend in February of 2009. Who's going to look at that at all, much less care about it?
My great-grandfather passed away last evening. It was his 88th birthday and he died in a hospital room packed full of people that loved him dearly. He had been in the hospital for the past two weeks. We all kind of came to terms with what was to happen, but you're never really ready. My grandmother was talking about how hard it was to think of him as he was when he was healthy since we had all spent so much time with him at the hospital- looking really sick and acting out of character. So I dug up some old family photos- of him during WWII, with my great grandmother and my grandfather as a boy. I saw pictures of the mess hall at his station in Germany, a family picnic in Biloxi in aprox. 1950, of my great-grandmother in really cute old swimsuits, his kids at various ages, his first car, pictures of his house in Biloxi, and of the condo he bought in Memphis just 8 years ago, pictures of his friends in the service, of his friends at the retirement community, his wife Wilda. And not once did I think, why'd he take all these pictures? Who cares? I felt honored and privileged to see the world as he saw it, one snapshot at a time, To see the ones he loved as he saw them.
So now I get it. I recognize how awesome is it that we have an opportunity to share our lives with one another in the present. What a gift!
