I had my Walmart moment at the local copy shop yesterday. As I waited for my purse inserts to be printed, I struck up a conversation with an older lady who appeared to be having a lifetime of photos copied. We talked about photos and how they tell a Story. I told her my philosopy of photos telling a story, just not always a true one. She seemed to be taken back by my comment in the conversation to follow, it be came evident, we were not on the same page. She was making a scrapbook for her kids even though they told her they were not interested in having one. We talked about having tons of photos and having no idea who the people in the pictures were - She even admitted to copying photos of people she didn't know.
More pictures. She wanted to them to remember good times and forget the bad. I couldn't help it, I explained that my experience was I learned more from the bad that the good. That the bad was part of the whole picture and likened to throwing the baby out with the bath water. We continued our conversation but is was obvious by now that we didn't agree on much. She is my FIL's age and I am aware of that generation's way of coping with life is bascally to deny it. Very secretive in financial and personal matters, they didn't have the luxury of Dr Phil and Oprah in their formative years.
We talked about technology and she said she needed to learn more on the computer. By her tone, it was obvious that learning the computer was right up there with learning the cello - not going to happen.
She talked about keep a diary,
I talked about writing a blog.
She talked about the dates on the pictures not being correct,
I talked about downloading my pictures and keeping them in files by month.
She had her way,
I had mine,
My inserts were ready and I took them over and showed her. Her face lit up with an apprecation of what was possible. She was still there with a pile of pictures, nowhere near done,
Wouldn't have missed meeting her for all the money in the world, There is always something to learn from a person. We infused each other's day with a piece of our world. Knowing that neither of us wanted to stray from what we know, we walked away with a mutual respect of what we couldn't understand, and it doesn't get any better than that...
