dual personalities

This week I had my students watch the film Everything is Illuminated, which is a wonderful, sometimes hilarious, but also sad story about family and memory, in which we learn that

…everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us, on the inside, looking out.

Well, I couldn’t agree more — the past is certainly always along side me, both literally and figuratively. While I’m not as obsessive/compulsive as the film’s main character (played by Elijah Wood),

who clearly needed to see a shrink, I do surround myself with nice things that remind me of my family and, well, the past. Take, for example, my dresser and mirror which are from my grandparents’ house (please excuse the poor photo — I could not get the lighting right!):

I remember using the dresser set when we visited our grandparents and when it became mine when I was ten, that connection made it very special. The chair on the left is from the family farm in New Hampshire and the framed print leaning up against the dresser until I get around to hanging it was one of my mother’s favorites. On the dresser I have a collection of boxes and also my mother’s photo.

The larger wooden box was my grandfather Cameron’s; the round wooden one is Ukrainian, a gift from my husband; the silver topped one was my grandmother Chamberlin’s; the pretty porcelain heart, a gift from my Aunt Susanne, and the beautiful little enamel one, a gift from my dear dual personality, as was the picture frame. The dresser cloth is an antique (I think also from the farm?) and the hand mirror was my grandmother Cameron’s — it’s one of those bakelite ones from the 1920s. Every time I use these things I think of those from whom they came and it makes me happy.

I don’t live in a museum and I’m not being morbid — nor am I a materialist. It’s not about monetary value or the supposed caché of owning antiques. I just like the way everything has a story and the stories keep us connected to our histories. And without that connection, we’d feel lost all the time like Elijah Wood at the beginning of Everything is Illuminated. Really, if you haven’t seen the film, do! It even has wonderful music:

Have a great weekend and remember, “everything is the way it is because everything was the way it was.”
(from Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer)