June 23, 2009

Baggage Unloaded

Yesterday, after almost five years of reliable service, my trusty computer died. And naturally, I’d not backed up anything on it. So there goes hundreds of itunes songs, tons of word processing files, and most painfully, five years of photos from adventures near and far. Tears were shed, of course, but there are blessings to count. That, for some reason, randomly, all Stuart managed to save in a desperate attempt before my hard drive died was a file of unpublished yet publishable stories that would have been irreplaceable. And we’ve been pretty diligent about having our very best photos developed and put into albums (including a year’s worth we had developed just in April). Sadly, none have been developed since Harriet was born and we’ve lost some pretty precious ones from her early days, but enough were put on Facebook and emailed to grandparents that we have a considerable record. Things could be worse, and we will have plenty of opportunity to take photos of Harriet in the future, I am sure.

Everything else that got lost, I don’t really need. Sure, Stuart and I will miss our “Books Read Since 2006” files (lame, I know, but Art Garfunkel has had his list since 1970) but we will start new lists. We have lost thousands of photos, but we would never have looked at these, and there were times I felt a bit overwhelmed by the size of my photo library– what does one do with such volume? I’ve lost a meticulous record of submissions, all my published work, story starts and some works in progress, but the published works are already out there, and losing the rest might feel like losing ten pounds. Tomorrow is my birthday, and I begin a new year, a new decade, I’ve got a new baby (who is four weeks old today!). Perhaps the lost computer is baggage unloaded, and now I get to get a new one, and has there ever been a better time for a fresh start? Tabula rasa? It’s inspirational. Seems I’ve got some brand new creating to do.