I had a friend awhile back, who bought one of those hand held video cameras. They were new at the time, and when my friend and her husband had her first child, it was never far from her side. “Hold on!” She would say, as the candles were about to be blown out or the wrapping half torn off a christmas present. “We have to record this!” We would all stand awkwardly and watch as she fumbled to get the settings right, inevitably something would be wrong or not working and those few seconds turned into minutes, the child staring blankly, time temporarily frozen while we waited for the video camera to work.

 

“Ok, I’ve got it! Lets go!”

 

Things would resume, but to me they were somehow never really the same. The child’s excitement was gone, those instances of joy and wish- making dulled by the abrupt… pause. I began to dread that video camera.
I understand what my friend was trying to do- these moments are so prescious to us, we want to capture them and have them forever- and this video camera seemed to offer that. Except it really doesn’t.  We can’t simultaneously be in the moment and be consciously storing the moment away for the future. We also can’t be in the moment and evaluate the moment, at the same time. But we try..we try and try and try.