We have been having some beastly hot temperatures here lately, as high as 102 above zero at some points yesterday. As I drove home from Middleburg, where I enjoyed a lovely graduation party for Memrie Ross, it was 102, but dropped to 100 when I pulled into my parking place after the 30 minute drive back home later afternoon. I was tempted to get my suit on and go out to the pool but chose to sit in the A/C and talk with Justin for a bit.
Linda Jachimstal, Lee Lawrence, Jacquie McDonald, and me at BasketiqueTeaRoom
Friday Mo and I were at the pool and got talking with Lucy, who is preparing her home to be sold so she can downsize into a townhome or condo in St. Augustine. She talked about the “things” she has to go through, making decisions for their fate, whether they are worth keeping or could be sold at an estate sale in the future. There is just so much we cannot let go of, many of us having the same problem with these types of decisions. She told about sorting through photos that she had inherited from her mother, and how she is making decisions of what to do with them. If she can no longer see the faces, she is letting go of them. Isn’t that an interesting criteria? Her thinking is that if she cannot tell who it is in the picture any longer, why would anyone else want them? She is marking those she does know and will share them with her cousins whose family members are in the pictures because “you just can’t throw away pictures!” Only if you cannot see their faces any longer. I asked her if it was like throwing people away, and she agreed that it was.
We ladies talked some more about how valuable capturing moments with our families is to us. One of the great charms about Facebook is the ability to share and store one’s pictures of their family gatherings, especially now when many folks are feeling isolated at home due to the virus. A few weeks ago I shared a picture of our family taken at my nephew’s wedding (2009) where we are all together, but my sister, Kerry, is hidden behind my nephew and we cannot see her face. I had wanted to have that fixed by my friend who can do such magic, but my nephew strongly objected to my tampering with his wedding picture. WELL! Anyway, my mom is standing just a step to the side in the front row of the photo. When I originally posted it, one of my friends commented that Mom should have been front and center, and I told her I had to wrestle Mom just to be in the picture. Apparently this type of stuff is not as important to others as it is to me! That is the only family picture we have from over 10 years ago.
When visiting my mom and family in WI I try to capture pictures of us girls with Mom but it is terribly difficult to get everyone in one shot or even in town at the same time. Sometimes the girls are reluctant participants in the photos. Again, it matters more to me than it does to others, I guess, but someday, those pictures should still be clear enough so we can see the faces, and not end up in the trash bin. In watching the live-streamed funeral service of Anne Hoyer a couple weeks ago, the photo presentation at the end was fabulous. I knew many in the photos with Anne and her smiling face, pictures with her two sisters and/or their parents. They lived distances apart from each other yet remained so well connected. It was so great to see all the faces.
A day or so ago a friend of mine posted a lengthy statement about why she will not wear a face mask during this Coronavirus situation. She is logical and measured, having done her due diligence in researching the pros and cons, and with her suffering from asthma and having anxiety issues, she has opted out. Such a firestorm of controversy over this matter! People take it most personally as though my friend is waving a rifle in their direction or has pulled the pin from a live grenade. She is considered dangerous by some (the least dangerous person in any room is she!). Her face is too beautiful to cover and fortunately she doesn’t work is such a place as requires it. But who in the world would have ever thought this would be an issue to fight over?? We are judged by it, accused or mocked, scaring people if we do not have one, when the opposite would have been the case just six months ago! Now if we see their faces, they are our sure enemy, how about that? To go into a bank now we must cover our face. Where in the world (in which worlds?) do we live? The land of the free and home of the brave no longer.
