The Best Memories

“Breathing Room” is a caption that appropriately accompanies a photograph of a lush green clearing somewhere out in the country that hangs from my living room wall at home. It is a simple testament to the awe-inspiring nature of discovery and that it is still true that some of the best things in life are free. I’ve recently contemplated the best avenue to maximize my discovery time while on vacation: tours, guided adventures, and a travel companion complete with itinerary, map, binoculars and a gratuitous layer of sunblock for my perfectly shaped nose. Such things typically require a fanny pack donning a sizable sum of cash. Perhaps we set the bar too high for ourselves to return home with a collection of stories of all the things we did and are trying too hard to manufacture nostalgia.

The digital camera has become the ubiquitous all-important tool that we use to help supplement our memory and is the calling card for tourists everywhere. This is an incredible tool which has the power to evoke powerful memories. However, as with many other great technological advances it can often be abused. It’s quite common that camera users will go to great lengths to capturing whole “experiences” on film. These are typically concerts or other intangibles that we’ve paid sizable sums to take part in. This effectively detaches oneself from the moment with the allure of getting “perfect” shot and ends up negatively affecting the experience of others by obstructing their view. It seems that we’ve all become virtual reporters and hoarders of experience and have an obligation to keep a complete media library on our lives.

I find it rare to see someone return with a written collection of their thoughts and emotions. Its as if this age-old activity of sitting down and writing about an experience to a friend has been replaced with flashing lights and digital memory sticks. We can revisit a photograph but can only speculate about our state of mind and the range of thoughts and emotions we experienced on that day. A picture can say a thousand words but that shouldn’t discourage your for describing your interpretation for yourself or public audience.

This is my contempt for the manufactured notion of what constitutes real experience. My suggestion is to live before you choose to remember and to write about how your experience measured up against your expectations. Experiences are about ideas and emotions as they connect and respond to our in-borne senses. The visual cortex responds with dilated pupils in a moment of excitement, your cerebellum dials into the soothing sound of ocean waves lapping against the shore and your mind is suddenly at ease. Taste your experience and feel out your environment however you see fit and not just because you feel you should do everything that everyone else is doing. The moments pass quick and their ability to be captured, archived and stored for future use depend on how you choose to capture them. Is there a better way to attempt to describe the ever-elusive moment and the indescribable ideas and emotions that accompany an experience than to write about it?

Below is the scenery that inspired the thought. Enjoy!

View from the Vancouver Convention Centre