"Did you just use 'film' and 'cinematography' in the same sentence?"

Some parents sign their children up for cheerleading at the age of four or buy baseball cleats as a Christmas gift to prepare their barely walking child for t-ball season. I, on the other hand, grew up with a mother who's passion was beauty. Beauty was all around me and thanks to her, I had the eyes to see it. She used her eye for beauty in decorating our home, and translated her skill to me as she taught me how to draw horses out of ovals, and use grids to recreate reality on a sheet of paper. Whenever I visit my parents, my mom pulls out her portfolio and shows me all of her studies and watercolors she has done since I last saw her. She shares with me the irritations and struggles leading up to her finished product and shows me new techniques she picked up along the way. It's interesting to see art in progress and to understand that a finished product isn't (usually) the result of divine intervention. It is a growing and stretching of the mind and a bettering of ones self. It is growth and progress and it is just as beautiful as the finished product. It's like watching a baby struggle as it tries to take its first steps. They fall and sometimes start to cry but each attempt is a celebration. It is a mother calling the father at work just to say that the baby stood for a WHOLE minute... and then fell. It's about growth, practice and work and through the grueling process, being able to run across the room or frame a stunning watercolor.

There is a film that recently aired at The Strand called Cairo Time. In this film, noted for its incredible cinematography, a woman travels from New York to Cairo to visit her husband who works for the UN. While he is held up working at a refugee camp, she explores the beauty and culture of the great historic city of Cairo. At one point in the movie, Juliette (played by Patricia Clarkson) is walking through a garden with a huge canopy of trees. As she takes in the ornate beauty of the trees around her, her tour guide and friend remarks something to the effect of, 'look at these trees that get to live alongside their ancestors!' Old trees are something that we, as Americans, know little of. The size of the tree trunks were bigger than any I have seen and their mere size reflected of the history they have lived through. Though this scene wasn't even a prominent aspect of the movie, it stuck out to me more than most others. Though the scene only lasted a short moment, it sparked much thought as I considered ancestry and different people and accomplishments that have taken place in my family line.


Could you imagine living alongside your ancestors? I would have so many questions and I think I would have paid more attention in History class growing up if I had actually known people who lived through it all. I'd love to walk around the quarries of Vinal Haven with my Great Great Great Grandfather on my fathers side who migrated to Maine from Scotland to work in the quarry industry which provided streets to great cities like Boston. I'd want him to lead me around the island with his thick scottish accent and tell me about the oppression and starvation in Scotland which lead to his courageous move to the young country of America. I'd want to sit with my Great Great Great Grandmother as she gutted her catch of the day to prepare her cheap New England dinner. I'd want to sit with Harriett Beecher Stowe from my mothers side of the family and hear about her journey of writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. I'd admire her bravery and hope that maybe an ounce of her strength could be seen in me. Lastly, I think I'd want to sit down with my grandmother who died just a few years ago. Since moving to Maine, I have met people that knew her well. What saddens me is that I feel like many people here knew her better than I and have testified of her great charactor and skill on the piano. I would want to have tea with my Grandmother and hear her perspective on things having gone from daughter of a Philadelphia banker who barely felt the depression to marrying a baseball player from Clark Island, Maine.

Just think of all the wisdom that we could obtain! Instead, we are left with stories. With the way my family tells stories, I wonder if there is more truth than fabrication, but stories are the only thing we have to truly link us to our rich ancestry. We can only know what we have been told. There are a few little things that I've picked up. I have been told that my sisters and I laugh the same way that my grandmother would laugh with her sisters- loud and proud. I gain my musical flare from my father's mother and grandmother and thankfully, I have been given the wonder genes of humor and an eye for beauty from my mother.

It is easy to think that we create our own future. We are told from a young age that we can accomplish whatever we want as long as we set our mind to it. Though this may be true in part, it is important to remember where we came from and who has made it possible. Just think if Harriet Beecher Stowe had never revealed the harsh realities behind slavery or if the quarries of Maine had never been worked, establishing the foundation of one of Maine's most prominent industries. Where would we be today? Probably standing in dirt harboring racial anger. No thank you.