Not my usual subject line, right? But I promise, it has a point.
Sometime last year I did something pretty unexpected: I got completed addicted to The Walking Dead. Now, I totally understand if it isn't for you - it wasn't really for me either - but stick with me, I have a non-Zombie related point to make.
In the beginning of the series, way way back in season one, the main character, Rick, is trying desperately to find his wife and son. The city has been abandoned, zombies are everywhere. It's treacherous to travel and things are bleak.
The good news is, he did find them eventually (it was a very heartwarming moment in a show filled with zombies). But when he finds her, his wife asks him,
How did you know we were alive?
You know how he answered?
All of the photos in the house were gone.
In the middle of the zombie apocalypse, when she was rushing to escape with her son, to find safety, when she knew she would never be back again, she took her family photographs with her. Albums, portraits from the wall, they were all gone because they were that important to her.
When I saw that it struck a chord with me. Sometimes we forget how powerful images are. How much of a person is left behind in the photographs we have of them. It's how we remember the little details of how they were. It's how we see how they aged over the years. It's how we get a glimpse into their relationships and see how they smiled and looked at the people they loved the most.
With any luck (knock on wood) we won't be facing a zombie apocalypse anytime soon, but what if there was a fire? Or what if you had to suddenly move to a smaller place? My guess is you would save those photos at any cost.
