Movie Clips by Lynn J Simpson

I have what I refer to as a 'movie' memory. I see my past played out like a movie, not words across a screen. Or dream of my future in scenes that in spots might be slightly blurred like backgrounds of photographs using low aperture settings. I can see that something is in there, but it is the foreground subject in perfect focus that my eyes draw to only.

So looking back to draw a memory in of what started my creative spirit, I see a white bookshelf in a child's bedroom, the camera moving in until titles become visible. There are Dr. Seuss and Winnie the Pooh box sets. There is a volume of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Disney titles of Cinderella and Snow White. There is a paperback of Charlotte's Web and another of the Cricket in Times Square. Above the book case is an open window and the sound of a dribbling basketball is the only sound clip at this moment.

Then the scene changes. And there is a coffee table in a living room with stacks of magazines and newspapers covering every corner.  There is People, MacLeans, Newsweek, and Time.  There is Canadian Living, and Flare, and the Sears Catalog (which makes me believe it must be close to Christmas). The sound of a newspaper page being flipped is heard and the camera exposes who the culprit is. A man (my dad) in his 50's is reclined in a tweed red lazy boy chair, black rimmed glasses edging his nose. He reads. And he reads. And it is silent until he turns the page.

The camera spans across the room and not a corner table, or a chair, or a couch is empty. Each one is graced with a book, or magazine, or section of a newspaper.  They are in every scene, these items that hold stories, some real, some made-up, some opinion, and some persuasive.

The camera spans back to the coffee table. And then I see my name. It is printed in black on one of the books that is the first of a stack of three on the corner of that coffee table. And there are capitol letters, words above my name, but these words are out of focus. I cannot read them, from my movie view. And realize I am now in the future. I am in the dream part of my movie memory, created by a past of scenes that are forever a part of me,

I love movies.