On Human Potential and Capturing Memories...

I had a project going at one point to put a video timeline together for each of the my kids.  The rules were pretty simple.  Cuts had to be edited down to 5 seconds a clip, to keep the timeline moving, and of course, it went in chronological order. 

The goal was to end up with a running 30 minute depiction of their life that Angela and I could watch when they were grown up and out of the house.  I need to get back on that project.  The video below (email subscribers click through for video) reminded me on why I was doing it.

The video below is a new Nike commercial, featuring a couple of NFL stars (LaDainian Tomlinson, better known as LT and Troy Polamalu).  What makes it special isn't football - it's the fact that the clips start with an ultrasound and tracks two kids growing up until they arrive at what they will become.  In this case, it's pro football players.  In the case of my kids, it will be something else. 

Both kids are unique from each other, but you can see behaviors in both as they grow up that hint at how they'll handle themsleves professionally.  How cool would it be to see something similar for the people on your team, your kids, etc?

I gotta get back to the video project.  Warning - if you are sentimental at all and have kids who are between 5 and 10, your eyes may well up a bit - especially if your kids play sports.  I've watched this about 10 times and mine have every time.

Comments

[Katherine Prouty]

My son is 11 and plays football and he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. (He is like me.)

My daughter, on the other hand, is now 15 and has her own band, has a CD out, and is in the top ten of Little Steven's UnderGround Garage/Teen Vogues Best Female Fronted Band contest. (The top three get to go to NYC to play at the Hard Rock and battle it out for a record deal on Steven Van Zandt's label, Wicked Cool Records.) www.undergroundgarage.com/teenvogue is the link. Her band is only one of two teen bands.

She has already played the Hard Rock Boston. And we have video at www.JessicaProuty.com) I can see making a video like this for her, but I don't have any hospital video shots! (grin)

For his life, I don't know what "shots" are going to influence him yet!

[Wally Bock]

I understand where you're coming from Kris, but I'm going to suggest that you not worry overmuch about getting the project done. We have five kids. They're all grown. One has two sons of her own. I used to worry that we didn't have enough pictures of them from growing up, but the fact is, we almost never look at old pictures. We tell stories. The kids tell them about each other and about us. We tell them back.

I suggest that while the video may be fun and wonderful to behold, it's those old-fashioned stories about time together that will be the real stuff of memories.