For my 74th birthday, I received a polaroid camera. It takes the same lousy pictures as it always did, but there is something so satisfying, so instantly gratifying to have that tiny picture develop in front of your eyes. It took Andy Warhol to make me appreciate the art of that imperfect photo.
Anyway, I bought myself a little six by six sketch book for a photo journal and I am recording people I run into daily and sticking it in the book for a history of my being 74. I will draw little cartoons around the photos. I have to wear heavy magnified glasses to even see the images.
The day after my birthday, I visited my doctor, and he said to me these words: "You should be prepared to die at anytime."
He is dim with social skills. I know what he meant. People die in their seventies. A blood vessel bursts in your head and you fall over dead as Napoleon.
He also told me to exercise; that exercise would help me keep my wits. He was full of information.
I pulled out my camera. "I'm going to take your picture," I said. "Okay?"
This caught him off guard, which is exactly what I intended. He does not know the power of the irrational. He is an excellent diagnostician, so I stay with him. I would have put the pic here, but I promised not to "advertise" with it.
I walked around Liberty Park today. The friend I was meeting forgot to come. So go your seventies.
I loved my Polaroid camera as a kid. Your adventures make me want to get one again. I wonder who I could surprise by taking their picture....
ReplyDeleteThis scene reads like it was written for a movie. Louise Plummer: My Life in Small Squares
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insight into life... I love it.
ReplyDeleteI am dying to see your tiny photo album with cartoons. I also love Megan's title for your movie starring you.
ReplyDeleteI think you should take a picture of a "green jello incident" in case we need material at your funeral. :)
ReplyDeleteI'd watch that movie. They'll play it at the Broadway.
ReplyDeleteYour camera journey sounds lovely and even at 30 people forget they are meant to meet up with you!
ReplyDeleteAfter you die I will take your sketch/Polaroid book to auction and make hundreds!
ReplyDeleteI came back to re-read this since there is no new material up and posted. That would be a broad hint, but for the obvious pot calling the kettle black. I love "the power of the irrational". That might become my current mantra...
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