When Steven and I were running errands on Sunday, we saw something that made us laugh and Steven asked if I wanted him to drive by it so I could take a picture.

“Nah,” I told him. “That’s not something I’d regret not taking a picture of.”

“What is?”

I was quick to respond – “Mostly nature stuff.”*

Stuff like this:

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Those are photos I’d regretted not taking. I still think about the time I drove past this park in the early am and there was a beautiful fog over the lake, and I didn’t stop to take a picture. I keep hoping it will happen again, but it hasn’t yet.

I ran across an interesting article* (pdf here) about how baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) are starting to clean out their homes, and that their millennial age (born between 1980-2000) children don’t want their hand-me-down furniture, family heirlooms, or memorabilia.

“Millennials are living a more transient life in cities. They are trying to find stable jobs and paying off loans. They are living their life digitally through Instagram and Facebook and YouTube, and that’s how they are capturing their moments. Their whole life is on a computer; they don’t need a shoebox full of greeting cards.”

Interesting, right? Getting a bit off topic here, but the article hypothesizes that baby boomers were collectors, who enjoyed the hunt, and that while millennials were raised in the “collect-’em-all culture” (like Beanie Babies and Happy Meal toys), they’ve mostly been able to find what they want on eBay, and don’t have the space for all that stuff in their small city homes, anyway. They’d rather collect memories, than items.

It’s a huge generalization, and I know many millennials who do NOT fit that description. I know millennial collectors. And I am a millennial and have no desire to live in the city. I do HIGHLY value my digital collections, but I still have a box full of, yes, greeting cards, that mean something to me.

But getting back on track, in the article, one of the people interviewed called himself a “digital hoarder,” saying, “If I can’t store my memories of something in a computer, I’m probably not going to keep them around.”

Now, that doesn’t 100% describe me, because, like I said, I still keep tangible memorabilia around, but I am definitely a digital hoarder. My digital photo library is crazy huge. And I access it daily. Yes, referencing the older photos, too.

Capturing photos of moments I want to remember is incredibly important to me. Writing down those memories on this blog is important too. Sharing them on social media (I use Facebook), isn’t highly important to me, but I still do it from time to time (more on my blog page, than personal page).

I was listening to a podcast where the host and his interviewee talked about how people need to stop taking so many dang photos and just enjoy the moment. I see what they are saying. You go to National Monuments, or a sporting event, or a concert, or whatever, and people are taking photos the whole time (and you always presume it’s so they can immediately post it on social media to proclaim how interesting they are for doing what they are doing, AT THAT VERY MOMENT). You do wonder if they are experiencing ANYTHING.

But I don’t think we should go so far in the other direction to not take ANY photos (which is what they were saying on this podcast). Like I said, I’d regret not capturing those. And yes, part of the reason I did take these rainbow photos was to share it with people – I wanted to share my joy in seeing it. But I also wanted the photo for me. And I ran with a huge smile on my face after I saw it, while I could see it during my run, and for the rest of my run.

*And family/group photos too. Yeah, they are staged, but I like them. I like to see them, and remember why we were together.