Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Abridged or Unabridged?
When deciding on making a documentation of your past, how do you decide which photos, which things, which events to include? I mean, there are parts of my life that have happened that seem so insignificant now. There are parts that probably shouldn't have happened. There are people, and I remember why I was hanging out with them at the time, that don't fit into the mold of my life now. Do I gloss over those parts of my life that I look back at with... embarrassment? Unease? Regret? I'm not sure of the quite the perfect word. I was silly at times and had silly friends. Do I embrace my past, include it in, recognizing that it did help shape me into the person I am today? Or do I ignore it, realizing that maybe it's not a part I want to share with people. Is my life going to be abridged or unabridged?
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2 comments:
The past couple days I've been digitizing all of my photos and scrapbooks from my pre-college days, and I was wondering similar things. I ended up scanning everything, because I figured this is everything that's happened to me, and no matter how insignificant it is to me now, it's a part of my history and somehow influence who I am today. No matter what, it's always an abridged history because you can't ever really capture every moment, event, or emotion.
I think it depends. Some stuff that happened in the past is nobody's business but your own. But some is worth preserving and sharing. You probably have to make those decisions on an individual basis. Helpful, huh?
Now, don't hold me as an example of what to do, but in regard to old pictures, I threw out all the ones that had my ex-husband in them long ago. And my husband got rid of the ones that had his ex-wife and ex-girlfriends in them. Yes, it may have been an important part of our history, but it's not a part we're interested in ever revisiting. As far as future generations are concerned, a brief mention of those parts of our past is sufficient.
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