Two weeks ago we were in Chicago. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world and is home to one of my very places. I go to the Art Institute each and every time I’m there. While looking at the photography exhibit, I started crying. I was viewing the “Americans” collection in the basement. Snapshots of people and places from around the country, in black and white from the 50’s and 60’s.
While walking around the gallery, I was struck with sadness. How sad is it that we only exist on a single thread of time? I lament that I wasn’t alive during Shakespeare’s time? I mourn that I couldn’t listen to Jazz music during prohibition. I’d love to believe in multiple lives and reincarnation. To know that I would come back again in another time and place would be such a comfort to me.
After I gathered myself, my husband and I continued our journey around the museum and went on with our day, enjoying the sights of the city and doing the show that night. Life has gone on and been busy. More travel. More shows. More bills. More phone calls. I sit here in the dressing room, in Huntsville, Alabama, taking a good look at myself in the mirror.
I need not mourn missing the past. I need only concern myself with the present. I have to take it upon myself to live a million lives worth of experiences, to get as much out of this little thread in time’s fabric that I can possibly get. I must challenge myself to live with no regrets. To live for today. To live a life worth photographing.
Liz Shivener 