Past Present Future

Recently, this really good brother of mine(anything but blood related), who is having his fabulous collection of Japanese toys(not those blow up rubber sex dolls) up for sale in ebay(not selling his wife tho, not yet at least...). This collection of his have been with him for 10 years and he finally made a decision to sell it off. I asked him to keep it for memories and old times sake, but his reply was : "The time will come when parting is inevitable" In parting, what are we left with from times past to cherish?

This triggered a thought: What do we pass down to our future generations??

What will our children know or understand about our past? What we used to play, what we used to eat, where we used to go.
Will they repeat our mistakes? Will they follow our paths? Will they understand us from this century and time?

What do we have for our children of the future? We pass down our genes, our thoughts and values. Anything less complicated than these? Simple things? What happen to the beauty of simple things in life?

Starring at a simple Yashica Film Camera that belongs to my old man during his younger days, sets me thinking, what kind of young man was he then? What was he doing in his teenager days, 20s, 30s? How many galfriends he had then(alot i am sure)? where do they hang out? Where have he been with this camera? What goes past the shutter of this camera? A simple camera from the past triggers many complicated questions. What will i think of when i see the books he read, the toys he played, the watches he wore, the wallets he carried...? Those things past would probably help me understand my old man better over his different stages in life, which might help in less clash of opinion and generation gap now??

(In another pespective, what will the camera think when it was been thrown or sold away one day? Will the camera felt ditched? Unwanted? Lonely? Will it miss it's original owner? Will it wept in silent?)

Often, simple things in life that would mean alot to a person are usually overlooked and forgotten. Untill it's too late.