Friday, February 27, 2009

what are you gonna remember?


yesterday, in doing a bit of tidying up in preparation for today's arrival of the cleaner, i came across the picture above. it's husband as a boy of about 5 together with his mother (and a large radio and a very small peugeot) having lunch by the side of the road somewhere in norway. i love many things about the photo--especially that it naturally has that lomo feel to it--all i did was scan, no effects were applied whatsoever. husband is just so cute and so is that car. all husband remembers about it was that it was in norway, otherwise, it's a roadside stop for lunch like any of a hundred others he had as a child.

many years ago, during college, i attended a wedding of a work colleague. a bunch of us from the newspaper sat together and to be honest, it was a rather lame and not very happening wedding. so we decided to move on to a nearby bar. i was hemming and hawing about whether to go along or go home and one of the guys said, "come on, what are you gonna remember?" and he was right, was i going to remember going out and having fun with friends or was i going to remember going home to bed? it was just a line tossed off in a moment, but it has resonated with me ever since.

you might even say it's become a bit of a life philosophy. i have used it countless times when people were about to wander off rather than participating in some fun activity. or when they couldn't decide what they wanted to do. or when they thought about going to bed early. because aren't the things we remember things where we were active and present and participating and stayed up late? we don't remember an evening in front of the television, we remember an evening of dancing or playing cards or having a great conversation over good food. let's face it, you don't know whether you're alive or dead when you're watching t.v. (thanks barbara kingsolver).

i think of some of the times when i said "what are you gonna remember" and the things that i'm certain the people involved remember...

like the time that richard sang bohemian rhapsody in batangas while a typhoon raged just outside:


paying the singer extra to stay on (and on and on) so we could keep dancing at the sofitel in manila:


that time my very tall colleague went to hobbit house -- where all of the wait staff are little people:


the sight of this guy (actually, all 3 are guys) at the amazing show (a transvestite variety show in manila):


my sister licking spilled limoncello off the table:


those ridiculous shots where you take a picture of yourselves shaking your head and going "lalala":


apparently most of the times i said, "what are you gonna remember," we were in manila.

i'm not going to be in manila this weekend, but i hope to do something that i'll remember. what are you going to remember?

9 comments:

Molly said...

According to my biorhythm calc I'm deeply unfit, unhappy, uninspired and unintuitive - whereas i'm actually feeling GREAT today... The only interesting fact I gleaned was that I've been alive for 12337.3 days!
But what am I going to remember? A bad biorhythm report or having a giggle at M licking limoncello off a table ('cos that stuff is precious!)?
I think you can guess ... :)
Have a good weekend!

d smith kaich jones said...

I LOVE the picture of your hubby & his mom - at first I thought she was actually smoking!, and that made it seem quite wonderful - politically incorrect & very pre-government intrusion - but even when I realized she was eating, it made no difference. It looks like a still shot from a European movie from the 60s. Just wonderful.

:) Debi

Tara Thayer said...

Hooray! I love this-all of it. You may have kick-started my ass into gear again with this one. I think I've long held this philosophy, but am just now realizing that you have to work a little harder to implement it when you get to my...um,er...stage in life. I want my kids to see me live robustly, so that they too feel like jumping into life.
That picture is one of the best things I've seen in a while, too.
Happy Weekend! tt

Char said...

excellent advice! I try to live my life in much the same way, in the long run is it more important my house was spotless or that I spent my time with my loved ones.

beth said...

that first picture is the BEST and I love the whole idea of what are going to remember ?
I feel I can't remember much from the first 10 years of my life and I've acutally been working on that !!

Bee said...

So many great pictures in this one, and your lovely theme (and life's motto) binds them all together.

I can't believe that your husband's family actually sat at a little table for their picnic lunch! What style!

Amy Kate said...

How have I never had someone yell that at me before? What a great philosophy!
I feel as though it is so easy to get stuck in one rut or another and just hole up every weekend instead of just DOING SOMETHING, and I really like the idea of thinking to myself, or saying to others, "What are you gonna remember?"

PS I linked over here from Gwen at Woman on the Verge and I love your blog!

hele said...

i love this mantra, it makes me feel happy.

and once again the word verification is perfect:
tra-joly

Elizabeth said...

This question I'm gonna keep:

What are you gonna remember?