After my grandmother’s funeral last year we went back to my aunt’s house, and after chatting with the family for a while, I received an unexpected gift.
I remember it was a cool and cloudy day, and my uncle (my dad’s brother) walked me out to his car. In the trunk was a large, framed picture I hadn’t seen in almost 20 years–and it really stunned me. In the photograph, I’m about 4 years old, and I’m standing outside, in front of my mom and dad, with some trees in the background.
(AsAfter my grandmother’s funeral last year we went back to my aunt’s house, and after chatting with the family for a while, I received an unexpected gift.
I remember it was a cool and cloudy day, and my uncle (my dad’s brother) walked me out to his car. In the trunk was a large, framed picture I hadn’t seen in almost 20 years–and it really stunned me. In the photograph, I’m about 4 years old, and I’m standing outside, in front of my mom and dad, with some trees in the background.
(As a side note, my uncle, who gave me the picture the day of my grandmother’s funeral, was the one who actually snapped the photo way back in the early 1970s).
This photograph gleaned our walls for years and years, and no matter what else was going on in the family (usually lots of chaos), this one photograph always took me back to that gentle place. It’s an iconic photograph in my family’s history, one that everybody knows. And even though my parents are long since divorced (they’re now divorced longer than they were married), having this photograph means a lot to me. I’ll keep it always.
And this got me thinking about the iconic images of our lifetimes. Friends and family. Trips we took, tiny moments we shared. The treetops out of our bedroom windows. Lighting candles during a blackout. Halloween candy.
I’m not big on reminiscing (for better or worse), but I do think it’s a wondrous experience to revisit the iconic images from our own lives, and track them as a journey from then, until now. What stays with you? Most of the moments are gone from us forever, but the moments that stick with us are precious. They’re embedded in our psyches. In our souls.
What are the iconic images from your life? And when you think of them, what else floods through your mind?
Whatever those images are, I bet you’ll treasure them always. I know I will.
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2008/06/06 05:57
