Inheriting ashes, photographs and more
Jun. 16th, 2019 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcUnexpected developments left me with more vacation time for this calendar year than I had initially expected. I figured that I should finally perform a filial duty and take my parents' ashes on perhaps a last visit to Cornwall for me and scatter them there. I am conscious of how much of my thinking is, on its face, irrational. For example, whom does this trip benefit? It is not as if I believe in an afterlife. So much of what I believe turns out to arise simply from received wisdom about how one ought to behave. Rational or not, it seems the right thing to do so I have now made the related bookings for the middle of fall after the summer vacation folks will be long gone.
I also hope to move further toward sorting through my parents' photographs. I took backups of their hard drives and flash drives before I wiped them but had left things there. My work is on software for organizing, annotating and sharing one's images so I may as well start clearing the obvious clutter from my parents' data then arrange the remainder using the software I work on. I can't help but be reminded of Roy Batty's,
As usual, I follow what my instinct tells me: I shall preserve and eventually organize my parents' photographs. Regardless of if it is a good thing to do, it might be quite interesting. I will try not to trouble myself over what meaning those photographs had for them or that others should think similarly.
As a teenager I was beset by existential angst that had me reading authors from Dostoyevsky to Sartre for clues to how to give my life any meaning. In my thirties I was struck by a deep depression that took me years to climb out of. That healing process changed me and, among other things, somewhat inoculated me against despair. It's partly a matter of perception. The things that matter to me will someday be forgotten by all. I must accept that, whatever their value, the old things pass and make way for the new.
I have been happy to leave these inherited items alone, to procrastinate considerably. As well as the photographs from the computers I still have some physical items that I inherited, such as my father's coat which is presently in the attic. Likewise, I preserve the physical items but am in no rush to engage with them. It will get easier with time.
I also hope to move further toward sorting through my parents' photographs. I took backups of their hard drives and flash drives before I wiped them but had left things there. My work is on software for organizing, annotating and sharing one's images so I may as well start clearing the obvious clutter from my parents' data then arrange the remainder using the software I work on. I can't help but be reminded of Roy Batty's,
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.I won't even know where some of their photographs were taken or of whom.
As usual, I follow what my instinct tells me: I shall preserve and eventually organize my parents' photographs. Regardless of if it is a good thing to do, it might be quite interesting. I will try not to trouble myself over what meaning those photographs had for them or that others should think similarly.
As a teenager I was beset by existential angst that had me reading authors from Dostoyevsky to Sartre for clues to how to give my life any meaning. In my thirties I was struck by a deep depression that took me years to climb out of. That healing process changed me and, among other things, somewhat inoculated me against despair. It's partly a matter of perception. The things that matter to me will someday be forgotten by all. I must accept that, whatever their value, the old things pass and make way for the new.
I have been happy to leave these inherited items alone, to procrastinate considerably. As well as the photographs from the computers I still have some physical items that I inherited, such as my father's coat which is presently in the attic. Likewise, I preserve the physical items but am in no rush to engage with them. It will get easier with time.
