My Father

As I sat here composing this email, I wasn't sure how to title the message.  Should it be about "decluttering" or about "my father?"

My decluttering effort is relentless.  Today, I found a package of film negatives from 1991.9.17 to 1993.10.10, when Michelle stayed in China with my parents.  The package contained 35 envelops, each containing one roll of film negatives with dates clearly labeled on the envelop. Many envelops had dates with event names attached (see attached).  This was my father's efforts from almost 30 years ago, trying to help us organize memories of baby Michelle -- in such level of detail and specificity. 

As I went through each of the 35 envelops, three thoughts emerged:

1.  My father understood recycling in the most authentic way. He used envelops of my letters to organize the films.  I used to write a letter to them every week, it was our only way to communicate 30 years ago.  

2.  I have always considered myself to be extremely fortunate to have such loving parents.  However, sometimes, their deep love was hidden in the most trivial and seemingly unimportant aspects of our lives.  It wouldn't be discovered until maybe decades later, when we finally slow down AND allow ourselves to take the time to search.  To that end, I did go through each envelop today, read every note of each event on each day -- this was my way to let my father know how much I appreciate everything he had done for me.

3.  I couldn't help to wonder what went through my father's head when he decided to organize these picture films so carefully.  He might be thinking that some day I would need to find one particular picture's negative -- I might want to enlarge the picture or print more copies... How could he imagine today's digital world back in 1991?  How could any of us be able to imagine our way of life 30 years from now??