Metaphors of Life Journal: A Faded 40 Year Old Photograph

RANDOM ACT OF METAPHOR

A Faded, 40 Year Old Photograph

Hmmm, in these turbulent and unpredictable times, should we look to the future or to the past to find sanctuary?

I'm looking at this moment at a faded, 40 year old photograph of me taken when I was a young boy. I'm proudly displaying a stringer of eight perch which my father and I had just caught on the last day of our vacation. I'm grinning from ear to ear as is my younger sister who stands beside me.

Back then, a day such as this was as good as life could get. I would forgo virtually anything for the opportunity to grab my fishing pole and head for the nearest body of water. I was a shy and pensive child but these were moments of true passion for me.

At times like these, with political turmoil boiling over in a new country seemingly every week, a part of me harkens back to such a time. What joy it would be to push the pause button and recapture that childish delight.

But I know it is not possible. It was another place and time and a set of circumstances I simply can't replicate. I know people whose most passionate desire is to find their way back to such a time. Alas, it is a futile task.

We can go back to the scene itself. But it will not be as we remember. Even if by some impossible trick of time, the place has been preserved in its cherished state – we are not the same. For better or for worse, time and experience has shaped us into someone new.

I still find pleasure in looking at that photograph and living for a moment in the memory it stirs in me. But I linger there only a short time. There will be a time to look back when my days are winding down and I take stock of my life. But today I choose to look ahead with the wind in my face and new adventures before me.

A faded, 40 year old photograph from a simpler time. A random act of metaphor to remind me that memories are precious but sanctuary lies before us – not behind us.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of "Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel" – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael's website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. Visit www.smashwords.com to download a free preview of the e-book version.

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