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My World: Final Class

Hope you like this image. It conveys a link between the present and past, with implications for the future. Cheers, Mike

final_class_by_rufusthered-dbvbt6p.jpg
 
A lot of fun! Now what is the story? Is there a tradition here?

Asher

Where was it taken ?

Does the photograph of the young man in the foreground has any meaning ?

Hi Asher, Antonio

Here's the story behind the image.

Last Thursday was my last class after teaching in universities for the past 44 years. Now I'll continue my research but as emeritus professor. The location for the main photo was that final classroom, with the students those with time to say goodbye rather that those that dashed to next classes.

Examining the photo set me thinking. These students are bright and enthusiastic with their adult lives before them. I truly wish them happiness and all success to fulfill their dreams and future aspirations. Yet, depending on serendipity and circumstance, each one of us has multiple possible futures to add to an array of multiple possible pasts. Which led to personal thoughts about what the earlest version of me would think of me now: how well or how badly did I embody that earliest imagined destiny?

To portray this thinking visually, I rummaged in a box of old family photos for a picture of me aged 4 years 10 months. That's about the earliest age from which we can recall an organized set of memories. I imagined that youngest version of Mike in attendace at that last class. He'd have been so excited, wanting to break free from the photo and engage in conversation. So that's what he does in the image. We ended up liking each other a lot.

Cheers, Mike
 
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