The elderly shall dream dreams!

 

"It shall come to pass; I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; your children shall prophesy, the elderly shall dream dreams, and the young will see visions …” Joel 2

On her eternal quest to declutter our house, my wife came across an old grocery bag filled with photos I had saved from the family homestead when my father passed away some six years ago. I had taken a cursory glance at the contents when we were clearing out the house preparing it to sell. My brother, sister, and I had divided up tons of photos as best we could.

Specialists in decluttering recommend “digitizing” old photos so one can save space. I laugh in the face of such suggestions. That makes sense at first blush, but my dad was an avid photo bug, and amongst the treasures we saved, were a gazillion 3.5” floppy disks, each containing a dozen or so photos. I brought all those floppies home, and while most had some content-hints printed on them, the only way to view the photos was to have a floppy disk reader.

Fortunately, Dad was also a gadget hound, so I brought home his floppy drive and over the course of the summer transferred those images to my computer and burned them from there onto DVDs that I then distributed to my siblings. 

Guess what? Most computers don’t have DVDs built in anymore, but like my father before me, I’m a gadget hog and have one I can pull out and plug in as needed!

I have made and saved digital copies of all our own photos and videos, placing them into storage drives. They’re not hard to access, but it is harder to find what we want, because the digitization process I used gave every photo and file an identification number (and the date the photo was digitized); it’s hard to locate any one photo one might want to find.

Everything designed to make life easier seems to make life harder. When I die, I wonder if they’ll bury me or just digitize the ashes!

Anyway, I found myself going through the sack of photos the way God intended, one by one. There is no comparison between looking at photos on a computer screen (no matter how “high def” it is) and holding photographs in one’s hand – photos that have been touched by Mom, and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa, brother and sisters, and maybe even cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends.

I found myself glancing through one set of photos that really caught my eye. It was a collection of pictures of troops lining the rail of a Liberty ship, ca. 1945. Hundreds of soldiers in their woolen uniforms lining the rail from stern to bow aboard the “Admiral Sims.” None of the faces was much larger than ⅛ inch square, but suddenly, there he was. One face among hundreds, but clear as day, my father. Seventeen years old, clean shaven, fit and slender, arm resting on the rail, prepared to sail away to Europe to help secure the victory of a war just ending.

Pvt. Fred Axberg, 5th from left

I haven’t digitized that bag of photos yet. I’m taking my time savoring the images, gently caressing them with my thumb, enough to make a connection. Yes, one should wear special gloves when handling heirlooms that become more fragile with the passage of time. But I am at the stage of life where digitizing photos means actually putting my own digits on them, touching faces, shoulders, places, and things that evoke memories and stories – especially the stories.

The photos are still amazingly sharp and clear for the eras in which they were created. Having been stored in cupboards and boxes away from humidity, heat, and sunlight no doubt helped preserve them. But the stories are starting to fade, and I’m afraid those who follow will gaze upon these old photos the way archeologists look at cave drawings. 

Yes, I’ll digitize them some day soon. I know how to name them and file them better. AI may even be able to help. But until then, I’ll be glad to hold them in the palm of my hand, much like God holds us each here in this, our valley.

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)

Flickering Flames of Tomfoolery!

"Clouds and darkness are round about [the LORD], righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne.” Psalm 97:2

I am a weather man. That’s two words, not one. We don’t use the term weatherman anymore because those friendly folks who tell us what the weather is doing may or may not be male, female, or something else entirely. So we call them meteorologists.

I’m not a meteorologist, although I am old enough I can still remember when the meteor took out the dinosaurs, but we’ll save our trip down Nostalgia Lane for another time.

No, I am a weather man. This is the time of year I open and close windows and doors to adjust the temperature inside the house. Yes, I do have thermostats and a wonderful HVAC system which can moderate those temperatures with precision, but where’s the fun in that? 

My doctor says I need more exercise, anyway, so I jump up and down and leap about, going from room to room making sure we get just the right amount of ventilation and cross breeze to help keep the house approximately where we want it temperature-wise.

I was engaged in such an exercise the other day when the little woman and I caught a whiff of smoke coming in through an open window. 

“Ah, someone’s burning yard waste,” I said. I love the scent that comes from burning barrels – leaves, twigs, pinecones, and maybe a hint of juniper needles.

I looked out through the patio door into the backyard to see if I could tell where that wonderful aroma was coming from and noted a passing cloud of smoke that was larger and denser than the standard barbecue or burning barrel variety, so I decided to go investigate. Once a cop, always a cop, I guess.

I went out onto the deck and could tell that what I had assumed was a burning barrel or small burnpile sort of activity taking place was much larger and decidedly not “that,” so I went around to the front of the house and was shocked to see smoke billowing up from a neighbor’s yard a couple doors down the street. I heard the swoosh of a portable fire extinguisher and toddled down the lane to get a better look.

My neighbor several houses down was fighting a brush fire alongside his driveway with a garden hose. An elderly gentleman from across the street was also fighting the flames with a red-barreled fire extinguisher. I was amazed to see just how little water garden hoses provide when one is fighting a towering inferno. I ascertained that no one had called 9-1-1 (and confirmed Moses was nowhere to be seen), so I did my duty, made the call, and before long I could hear the approaching sirens of our local fire brigade.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and the fire hadn’t reached the house; Fire services arrived within minutes and the fire was extinguished lickety-split, so to speak. Fire department hoses are much more effective than garden hoses at dousing flames.

The fire had apparently started when my neighbor decided to burn weeds along his driveway with a propane torch, rather than pulling them out one by one like most of us do. I don’t blame him; it seems like an easy solution to a weed problem. Unfortunately his weeds were beneath a large juniper hedge, and that’s what caught fire as sparks jumped from the undergrowth he was trying to clean up.

Sometimes we try to find an easy way out of our problems, but unless we boot up our gray matter first, those solutions can create even bigger problems. I’ve always been a slow learner, but I pride myself on the fact that I CAN learn. 

The irony of the situation was that after the fire department had rolled up their gear and gone, my neighbor fired up his propane torch again and went back to his weed eradication project. Sigh. At least he kept his garden hose closer at hand. 

I’m not sure weeds are his main problem, to be honest, but I admire his tenacity. I’ll just make sure to keep a nostril pointed in his direction for a while – at least while I’m doing my weather man duties here in this, our valley. Be safe out there, folks. Smoky Bear thanks you.

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)