Fleeting Moments

Two news stories caught my attention yesterday.  The first was an MSNBC article on Dear Photograph, a site which features photographs of old photographs, shot in the same setting, and captioned poignantly.  This one, in particular, made me tear up:

"Dear Photograph: Thank you for everything we had"

Thanks to the powerful emotions these memories of fleeting moments evoke, Dear Photograph's founder, 21-year-old Taylor Jones, has gone from a regular young adult living with his parents to a social media darling, with impending book and movie deals and millions of website visitors.  In less than a month.  The dual powers of memories and media, at work.

The second story came from The New York Times and featured a woman who purchased and renovated a summer home on Nantucket, and then furnished the home with "instant heirlooms" --- other people's vacation mementos and antiques, all purchased on eBay. She said she "wanted a house that contained layers of memory, making it as otherworldly as summer....There is something in particular about summer that is poignant, because we all know that when we are in summer we are in a fleeting moment that will become part of memory."  Once more, old memories + new media, in powerful combination, help recapture the feelings of those fleeting moments.