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Maria DiGiorgio is a lifelong New Yorker, who currently resides in Commack, with her family. She is a devoted wife and mother, an educator and designer. Maria is active in her community, as a PTA mom and Girl Scout leader. She has a passion for interior decorating and loves to garden. She is an avid reader, and enjoys writing about life experiences and parenthood, as well as her personal observations about the world around us.
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| Ah, the times of our lives. What beautiful thoughts reflected in the beloved songs of Jim Croce and Paul Anka. (Now, I’m dating myself)! It brings a tear to my eye and a surge of love to my heart, each time I hear these lovely sentiments. It also brings a knot to my stomach, when I think of the countless, literally thousands of “photographs” I have taken over the years, and have yet to “develop”, “print”, “burn”, “sync” or even remember to place in a photo album (yes, they still exist) or scrapbook. The task seems undeniably insurmountable, and I am always planning on doing it “sometime soon”, in the ever-elusive future. Taking pictures has just gotten so complicated, these days. It used to be that you purchased a roll or two of film (in a tiny canister), and if you loaded it correctly into your camera, you were lucky enough to snag an extra two or three shots (from the original 12, 24 or 36 initially promised). Of course, without all the professional tricks of the trade our modern-day technology offers, you’d be lucky to score half the amount of good photos, as many would be blurry, over-exposed, too dark or unrecognizable. You see, you had to wait until the film was actually developed to see the fruits of your handiwork. You also had to pay for the whole kit and caboodle; good, bad or otherwise. There was no such thing as editing, deleting, cropping or “Photoshopping”, etc. Whatever was snapped was yours for the taking. This served its purposes, however, in keeping the number of photos taken to a minimum, and therefore, the number of photos acquired, to the same. Today, of course, I feel like I’m living with paparazzi! TMZ has moved into the neighborhood! Everyone, but everyone is forever snapping pictures, with their ubiquitous phones, iPads, and all other gadgetry. In my own home, I’ve been affronted by my daughter, emerging from a given room, holding her ever-increasing arsenal of technology. She’ll ask me questions, while informing me the person on the screen is on “mute”, thereby unable to see or hear me, as I am caught, unwittingly, unloading the dishwasher, in my nightgown! My heart goes out to all of Hollywood! Honestly, people, let’s get a grip. It’s really a matter of less is more. We don’t need to capture every nanosecond of living, just some of the truly memorable moments. In fact, I would argue, if we all just took a few steps back and allowed ourselves the pleasure of savoring these moments, we wouldn’t need all the other technological bells and whistles to create the illusion that they exist. Just as a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, I say, a treasured bunch of pictures in hand are worth a plethora of snapshots in cyberspace! |
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20 lucky winners will win $500 each in prizes totaling $10,000. 