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Health & Fitness

Yes, I Said FILM

If you blink a couple of times (not too many times – or you are bound to miss something) you can take pictures with your eyes…

I am with my family at the town of Mansfield’s 19th annual Duck Race.

 Yep... I said duck race.

 It is an event I have never – ever- witnessed.  Even more ludicrous, is that this public event  brought me to tears  as I watched grown men dump buckets of rainbow colored rubber (plastic) duckies into a little river near Fulton's Pond. All I could think was that my mom and dad would have loved this. The event seemed like a fun thing to do with the kids as a “kick off” to some fun summer events... but honestly, I was not sure what I was getting my poor husband  and children in to…  But it is wonderful. The event is probably one of the most ridiculously beautiful things I have ever seen.  And I have run out of film.

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Yes. I said film.

I have an old friend. It is a 35mm Cannon Rebel 2000, given to me for Christmas by my husband almost 8 years ago. It is one of my favorite inanimate objects. I wish it could speak. Right now, I bet it would call me a dope --  

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As a child I would blink multiple times at something I thought was beautiful.  When asked why I was doing this I would simply answer, “Mental pictures."

And… Well…I still do this.

 I guess I would like to envision my eyes as a cool digital camera which stores and saves files in certain places in my brain. I have a mixture of images that have been “down loaded” over the years into this place. These pictures occasionally creep up on me and I find myself in a mental slide show of the beauty that I have witnessed throughout my life. The mental images are pristinely saved and range from things like warm childhood memories….my wedding day…  or the birth of my children…

It’s funny, that I categorize all the images as “beauty”. I am pretty certain that some of these images are quite poignant reminders of difficult events that I would have rather not ever witnessed… events that were heart wrenching like watching a family bury a loved one,  a  friend in pain, or a child’s struggle with sadness or illness.

I guess what makes these images beautiful is what lies behind them... Something that is captured but often forgotten or missed because it is mixed up amongst all the intricacies that seem of upmost importance to us strangely complicated human beings. When you’re in the “here and now” beauty is sometimes hard to detect amongst all the madness that is thrown our way. However, when in quiet reflection, each and every one of my mental pictures demonstrate the strength of the human spirit regardless of the moment—joyful or saddened--human spirit is just... captured beauty. 

Well, as I watch the rubber duckies get stuck on the edges of the water way, and I watch children and families cheer as these toys float by, my theory is most certainly confirmed.

If you blink a couple of times (not too many times or you are bound to miss something) you can take pictures with your eyes. Oh yeah, and if you own a 35mm camera, stock up on film.

Yes – I said film.

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