Sentimentality

The older I get, the more easily touched I am by such things as songs or movies. Sounds cliche, but it’s true. I think universally so, but I don’t know that for sure. Anyway, several weeks back I heard a song that instantly caught my ear. At first, it was only because of the guitar picking intro. After that, though, it was the lyrics.

The theme is universal, and most likely applies to everyone at some point in their lives. Though I’m sure there are those with no positive memories of childhood, I think most of us have, however briefly, allowed our minds to wander back in time to when we were a kid, to thoughts about the home we grew up in. Though particular words used in this song may not apply to each person who listens to it, I think there enough common threads throughout it to evoke similar feelings we all share.

Listen to the song.

How did it make you feel? Happy? Sad? Were you touched at all, or did you just consider it yet another song? For me, it brought back many happy memories. Not that life growing up was perfect, not by a long shot. But then, there aren’t many households that aren’t dysfunctional to some degree or another. But I had parents who loved me, and a wonderful brother and sister, and a dog, and we all grew up together in what I consider to be the house that built me.

After I listened to the song a few times, I started thinking about our family’s old Super 8 movies and how this song might make great background music for it. Though there were only a couple of hours worth of film shot over the many years we lived in our childhood home, there were, surprisingly, a great many shots to pull from to create a video montage of most of our growing-up years. Fortunately, my dad was smart enough to get all the old films transferred to DVD a few years ago, so all I had to do was load up the DVD, rip it, and start creating.

So I spent several hours over the course of a week cutting together a three and a half minute short film, and I’m very proud of the end result. I shared it with my family and all have had the same reactions to it that I have. They loved the opportunity, however brief, to look back and enjoy our time spent together, both good and bad. At least for us kids, it really was what defined us as human beings.

For anyone interested in seeing the family video, send me an e-mail and I’ll give you the URL.

–dp

On Blogging

Yeah, the world has more than enough of these silly things, doesn’t it? So why one more? Well, this isn’t really a new blog as much as it’s a continuation of my old blog, which can be found here. I began writing it several years ago and, despite the sometimes sporadic posts, I enjoyed it quite a bit. For those interested in why I’m now blogging here, go and read the last entry of my old blog and it will all make sense. However, there is one other reason, but being a diehard fan of Apple products makes it difficult for me to confess it in public. But I will. After a few years of using iWeb, eventually I found it to be just a bit too restrictive in what it allowed you to do. So, given the timing and all, I thought I would just jump ship and head over here for a fresh start.

As for why I blog at all, it’s partly because I have this inner need to express myself through writing (the subject of future postings). However, it’s also driven by that part of my personality that seems to have an opinion or observation on just about everything in life and that needs to express those thoughts. Combine them together and you have the makings of a blogger. Maybe not a good blogger, but a blogger nonetheless.

So here is where I will place random things that, for whatever reason, are important to me in one way or another. Doesn’t mean anyone else will care, but then that’s the beauty of the blog world. No one has to read what you write and no one has to care. I can assume (or hope) that at least a few people find whatever I have to say interesting, or humorous, or enlightening, or maybe even thought-provoking. In the end, though, I know I can count on my family to follow me here, and I’m thankful they put up with my ramblings (both in blog form and in person :-).

For anyone else who finds themselves here, perhaps as the result of a google search or some other happenstance, I hope you choose to come along for the ride and enjoy what I have to say. Don’t be a stranger, though. Say “Hi” and Let me know you stopped by.

–dp