Show and Tell: Jim Vanides
/For Jim Vanides' Show and Tell, I will present in full his submission for the "I Love Notions" open call I had for issue 20. You can see the published version in the current issue. Jim read his poem for our event.
Jim is a technologist, educator, and photographer in Silicon Valley. As an educator, his passion is working with teachers to use technology to create powerful learning experiences for students—experiences that help more students succeed. As a photographer, he enjoys still life and landscapes, but most of all, capturing memories of children caught in the act of just being themselves...
Dear UPPERCASE,
Thank you for the invitation to think about notions! Who would have guessed that your invitation to would inspire me to stop and reflect on what really matters in life—and what it is that we leave behind.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that we recently found our daughter’s first pair of baby shoes, and all 32 years came flowing back as if they were an instant. Or perhaps it was my grandfather’s pocket watch, sitting in our cabinet of family “treasures” (complete with the key to his tailor shop in New York, circa 1925) that prompted me to think about the real meaning of “treasures”.
The feeling, all combined, was the unmistakable thread of time that linked my grandfather to my daughter—more significantly, the thread of love that will outlast time itself….
So thank you for prompting my memories and my conviction that “only love is timeless…”
Warm regards from California,
Jim Vanides
Threads of Love
Time is a thread
That connects us to our past
And leads us minute by minute
To our Future
Time, wrapped in Love,
Is the greatest gift
We can receive
And share
For all the gifts we give and receive
Only Love is timeless
Only Love will remain…
A nice note: Jim's daughter is Joy Deneen, a talented calligrapher and the author of our Garbage Beauty article in the current issue. I didn't find out until later that two generations of a family are published in the same issue!
