Driving west, early this morning, with the sun slanting along Bay Street and highlighting objects on the passenger side of the car, I noticed a bike leaning against a fence. The bike was without passenger: it was carrier for what looked like found objects on its route. A small bookshelf, old window with glass still in it, some bags, clothing, lengths of wood.
Twenty minutes later I was drivng back along Bay Street, into the sun, visor down, and when I turned gaze toward the bike saw it from a different angle, in different light. It was less golden and more rust-coloured. The bookshelf now seemed to be two bookshelves but maybe that was the shadow.
Five minutes later, on Gladstone Avenue in Fernwood, waking toward the Cornerstone for their grilled breakfast pannini, I stopped and stared. On the road there was a take-out cup, partially flattened, its contents (looked like coffee with double cream) making a curve of a spill across the empty parking space and ending up in a bit of a puddle at the curb. I deduced that someone had forgotten their coffee on the roof of the car (likely were distracted by newspaper or muffins or kids) and drove away. Cup did a dive.
Half an hour later, driving home along Johnson, sun high enough not to need the visor, I drove past a woman walking along the street, facing me. She was small and old and wrinkled, dressed in some sort of garment that was patterned in geometric shapes which did not flow with her body or her movement but seemed to hold her shape in a statue-stillness.
For all three of these "photos" I wished for a way to capture them for my own further perusal and for sharing.
In the past I have imagined some sort of chip or something implanted in my body that would respond to the wish for an instant photograph that I could later access.
Lately, this notion is getting stronger: those images are already in my mind. They are part of my memory system. I have heard there are advances being made in memory retrieval. You get the picture …. It's fun to imagine its fruition. It's fun to be part of the process now. Maybe the clarity of the memory depends on our focus in the moment, even for a split second. Being mindful now.