The Memory of Home

When Linda and I relocated here to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia from the coast of Maine I thought moving from our maritime location might mean leaving my creative muse behind but that has proved not to be true. Here we are surrounded by beauty; it is simply of a different type. We are close to the world famous Blue Ridge Parkway, not to mention the Appalachian Trail, Skyline Drive, Luray Caverns, Natural Bridge, and other natural wonders.   

And I was pleasantly surprised to come upon this quote in the official guidebook of Virginia by K.M. Kostyal: “Of all Virginia’s towns, this in the end, may be the loveliest. About 30 miles south of Staunton off I-81, small, intimate Lexington stretches along a classic Main Street filled with cafes, haberdasheries, and bookstores typical of a university town. Houses and public buildings from the early and mid-19th century line downtown and residential streets,” one of which we inhabit.  

Regular readers will recognize that one of the themes I write about here is the import of place in our lives and how the practice of photography helps us maintain memories of our experience in the places we inhabit. As I attended the monthly meeting of the local camera club the other day, I was reminded of the part photography has played in chronicling our journey from place to place. And you can check out some recent highlights here.

Being the collector of quotes that I am, I came across a couple that capture my thoughts concisely: “We’re Americans, our lives transient and easily uprooted. Yet the ideal that we Americans cherish is some cozy picture-book town—like the Lexington of our childhoods, or some idealized New England village—where everyone knows his neighbors,” writes local author Lisa Tracy in Objects of Our Affection.

And writer Allison Glock states in Southern Living, “I came to realize that the South was the love of my life—the dark, complicated, delicious, messy, blindingly gorgeous love I could not stop pining after, no matter how far I traveled or how much I claimed I’d be better off without it…Sometimes you have to leave in order to find your way home.” So, wherever you call home I hope you make meaningful memories of your very own!

iThankU

I was preparing to log off my iMac late last night when I pulled up the New York Times and sadly read of the passing of Steve Jobs, legendary co-founder of Apple and maker of the very device on which I was reading his obituary. As President Obama noted in a statement, “There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”

One of the most poignant tributes to Jobs comes from Times technology columnist David Pogue, who writes: “Here’s a guy who never finished college, never went to business school, never worked for anyone else a day in his adult life. So how did he become the visionary who changed every business he touched?
The story of Steve Jobs boils down to this: Don’t go with the flow. Steve Jobs refused to go with the flow. If he saw something that could be made better, smarter or more beautiful, nothing else mattered. Not internal politics, not economic convention, not social graces.

In 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement address to the graduating students at Stanford. He told them the secret that defined him in every action, every decision, every creation of his tragically unfinished life: ‘Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.’”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I must admit that the untimely death of Steve Jobs moved me to tears, not just for the loss of his genius but for how he and his work have profoundly changed the way I work and live. The tools he helped create have enabled me to live anywhere I want and to enjoy using that technology to make a living. I pray for the loved ones he left behind, and my eulogy to the man behind the magic is simply this: iThankU.

Total Recall

I just finished reading a thought-provoking book entitled Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything by Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell, fellow researchers at Microsoft. I first became acquainted with Gordon Bell several years ago when I heard about his project called MyLifeBits, in which he digitizes his entire life.

He writes about how he embarked on his journey in 1998 when a friend asked him to digitize the books he had written and once Bell saw the benefits of going paperless he committed to it, scanning articles, letters, pictures, receipts, and all the other detritus of life. One year later, the task became so overwhelming that he had to hire an assistant to help with the scanning.

Bell stresses the difference between the private digitization that he does, which he calls lifelogging, and the public practice of today’s Twitterers, which he calls life blogging. One of the special devices he employs to help him capture the events of his life is called a SenseCam, which snaps intermittent pictures throughout his daily comings and goings.

As Bell states, three technologies are converging to make the world of total recall a reality: ubiquitous digital recording and sensing devices, relatively inexpensive storage space, and expansive search and analysis capabilities. The tools he prescribes for digitizing life include a smartphone, a GPS unit, a digital camera, a personal computer, an Internet connection, and a scanner.

Regarding the payoff of total recall, Bell suggests: “I got started in this by wanting to get rid of all the paper in my life. Then I wanted better recall; then a better story to leave to my grandchildren. Soon I became aware of potential benefits for my health, my studies, and even a sense of psychological well-being from decluttering both my physical space and my brain.”