In 2017 I was granted Canadian citizenship. In a ceremony I will always remember I and several others swore the oath, sang the song (in both languages, no less) and signed the paperwork. Happy times indeed.
After the event my beloved and I celebrated with a visit to Clifton Hill, Niagara Falls (Canada) notorious tourist spot. We hit Ripleys ‘Believe It Or Not’ and a few other places. We also stopped to get our likenesses engraved by laser into matching keyrings. One each. I still have mine, Nikki’s broke. Two separate images are taken and the laser works its magic on a blank piece of resin. A few minutes later you walk out with a semi-permanent memory. The keyrings contain batteries. Press a button and they light up the engravings. The batteries, unlike the people in the images, are replaceable.
As I meandered aimlessly through my image collection today I came across this photo I shot of Nikki’s broken keyring, now living on our kitchen window sill. It’s a terrible photo. Taken as a throw away, a focus test on a new lens. Full of imperfections and cat hairs. That new lens really focuses quite well. But image quality doesn’t matter in this one. The content is the reason I keep it.
Happy times two
The memory flooded right back. I was right there in that moment, with all the joy of the day. And it felt good.
Photographs. I know I ramble on sometimes, but even terrible photos really are the best way to remember happy times. As long as we live, whatever happens. 100 years from now our memories of this day will be etched into this block, reminding us of some very, very happy times. And even if that block gets entirely broken, or lost, or eaten by a curious cat, this photograph will remain. Take the photo. Always take the photo.
