Beyond

I was thinking the other day that it wasn't all that long ago that once a person was gone, there was nothing left of him or her but the vague, sharded, fading memories of those who knew them. If you were very well-off, someone might have painted your portrait... once, perhaps even twice. But it's really only been in the last 150 years that solid, objective records of what a person looked and sounded like have been available after that person's death. The science has advanced. We've all seen Abe Lincoln... but what wouldn't you give to actually hear the Gettysburg Address in his own voice? Compare that with King's "I have a dream" speech a mere century later.

Now it's almost incidental. I was roaming through some of my older footage last night, looking for something appropriate to use in relation to something I'll be posting shortly, and I happened across a video I shot of Bonnie just about four years ago now. Larry, my roommate at the time, told me that Bonnie typically made a fuss calling after me in the mornings when I left for work. So, one day, I set up my camera on one of the tables in my bedroom, aimed it at Bonnie on the bed, and just let it run. This is a few seconds extracted from it, following me leaving the apartment (excuse the unmade bed... who am I kidding?). I find it a little haunting, but not overwhelming. Except maybe one vocalization a little past the half way point. It sounds so much like, "...hello?"...