Saving photos is not building a history

We fill our mobile phones with photos because we want an instant to remain. The image preserves a scene, but it cannot by itself maintain the relationship that appeared in it. An archive does not call, listen, or ask for forgiveness. Sometimes you look with nostalgia at how well you were doing while neglecting the present conversation. The memory becomes a refuge and demands less than loving the real person, who has changed and needs something from you now. Photos are a gift when they nourish gratitude and memory. They turn into a substitute when you accumulate proofs of a past love without carrying out the gestures that could sustain it today.