Newspaper Article

Today I dug out an article that I had saved from the paper back in April. It was a feature piece run in the weekend Bangor Daily that was called "History in the Making" by Patrick T. Reardon of the Chicago Tribune. I kept the article because I thought it was a really nice summary of scrapbooking and the values that it holds. The article discusses how scrapbooking is more that a hobby, it is an act of expression and creativity in a time where people often don't have as much creativity in the workplace or at home. Women (the majority of scrapbookers) get together often to work on their pages, chat, and create long lasting friendships. One scrapper, said that it is a way of touching someone 100 years from now who they will never meet and saying, "My life was worth something. I was here!" These pages are a record of our time on Earth, a way for us to create an expression of ourselves that will last after we are gone. Even though it is a great way for creative documentation, there are also negative aspects to scrapbooking. If looked at as historical documents, than scrapbooks often represent a very edited version of a life, without the bad times. It has been called "a condensed life review of what is worth remembering." However, a scrapbook is seen as "a way of bringing focus and unity to a typically scattershot modern existance," and it becomes a piece of someone's legacy.

I agree with most of the points raised in this article. I love the idea of knowing that after I am gone, future generatiosn can look at my scrapbooks and see what my life was all about, my friends, my passions, and my personality (both through the stories in my albums as well as in the way I tell them in the album). I would like to keep these aspects of scrapbooking alive in a digital world some how as well; a way for even more people to view your legacy, a way for the scrapbook to be around even longer, a way for others to link to your stories and create friendships just as in crops, and a way for people to still be creative and unique in the way they express themselves.