That was Then – This is Now (and Then)

Media Projects: Aging and the Passage of time

Fellow travelers on the journey of time - and a nod to Heraclitus -

“On those who enter the same rivers, ever different waters flow.”

Many people are familiar with the amazing ”Up” series which is a series of documentary films that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films new material from as many of the fourteen as he can get to participate. The latest film, 49 Up, was released in September 2005; filming for the next installment in the series, 56 Up, is expected in late 2011 or early 2012 (for more information: Wikipedia page info and PBS link and IMDB. In this series, the viewer can observe both continuity and change unfold across the life course and brings to mind the paradox of The Ship of Theseus.

The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same. Plutarch (Vita Thesei, 22-23).

With time – and as we age – how much of us is replaced at the molecular level ? Are the essentially the same as we once were ? Or with replacement of cells and tissue – are we still the same ? Or is it a combination of both forces at work ? 

One only has to dig through a treasure chest of family photo albums to “go back in time” as see how the individual (you) has physically changed (compared to now) – and perhaps in other aspects such as intellect, emotion, and attitude. Or not. Perhaps you are simply the same – only older. Thus, the bittersweet experience of reunions (high school/college) and the interesting drama of re-uniting with people (your cohort – your convoy) along the journey of time. Or the reading of obituaries for considering the way the person was then – and much later in life – and as a moment – and as a lifetime. I have contemplated on these issues both from a personal and professional perspective and have written a three-volume work of fiction on the subject with the title (appropriately enough), “Ship of Theseus.”

I hope you will also consider the reviewing the photographic odyssey of THE OXFORD PROJECT which complements the “Up” series as a “walking mirror” on human fate and fortune. Please also consider the development of the project The Story Corps and the way in which we might consider capturing both change and continuity in our lives. 

I look forward to your comments. Scott Wright