The Box

I have a new folder on my computer.  It's called "The Box".  I created this folder after the end of another relationship because I decided I needed a place to store memories that I wasn't ready to trash, but preferred to get them out of the way so I could not accidentally stumble upon them.

Who would have ever guessed we'd reach an era where we'd need to establish "cyber-attics"?  Instead of a shoebox to keep old photos, letters written on fading paper, odds and ends that spark misty memories, we now need a minimum amount of mega-bytes on a hard drive.

In this age of digital photography, e-mails, IM's, file sharing, social networking, and all other forms of electronic communication and connection, letting go of a relationship is no longer as easy as washing that man/woman right outta your hair.  This stuff sticks around.

A recent photo taken during one of our last dates was sent to me through e-mail.  I opened the attachment, which created a permanent file automatically stored in my "Downloads" folder.  Then I saved the file with a filename and put it into my "Pictures" folder.   I wanted to share it with friends, so I attached the saved file to a new e-mail, which stored a copy in my "Sent" folder.  One moment in time.  One memory.  Four copies that will last a lifetime.

I'm not ready to trash the photo.  I've ditched a lot of the e-mails, gone through the IM logs and thrown out as much as I dare to at this point.  I'm not getting any younger.  My opportunity to create new memories is fairly less than it used to be, so I'm a little more particular about what I keep and what I try to forget.  In a few more years, I'll be struggling a lot more to remember, and these photos - now a little painful to look at - may remind me of times when I did feel happiness and when I was in love and when I knew the intimate closeness of another soul next to mine.

Of course, one errant virus or slip of the finger on the wrong key, and I could end up losing these electronic bits and pieces of my life's data anyway.

Maybe I should burn it to a CD.....