An old home video shows the background voices that still photographs cannot return.

STILLNESS

WHAT THIS MEANS

The thing being filmed is rarely what matters afterwards. It is the voice off-camera saying something unimportant, the kettle, someone laughing in the next room, the ordinary noise of a house with people in it. A photograph cannot hold any of that, however good it is, because it keeps only what was aimed at. Sound carries the parts nobody intended to keep.

If there are old recordings in your family, get them somewhere they will survive. And take a few seconds of video now and then with nothing in particular happening. The background is what you will want later, though there is no way to know that yet.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Whose everyday voice would you like to have kept?

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