12.28.09 – Photographic Memory

Now that Christmas is over, the holiday music and movies seem to have faded away. I actually couldn’t get that interested in the old holiday movies this year, perhaps having watched them far too many times. I did watch Elf on Christmas, which has become a guilty pleasure, much to some of my friends’ horror. For a while I wasn’t sure what it was about the movie that delighted me so much. Then I realized what it was.

I don’t have any of my childhood photos and as it would take communicating with my family to get them, it seems doubtful I will ever see them again. I do remember them, especially a photo of myself at my oldest sister’s wedding. I was the unplanned mid-life child and my siblings were teenagers when I was born. This caused me to be a toddler at her wedding. I have no memory of the event itself, but was told I thought the whole day was for me, as any child would. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced the amount of delight as an adult that that young child had in that moment the shutter snapped. It’s the same sense of delight and feeling of wonder at the world that comes across in the film Elf, and a feeling I wish I could experience again.