Key Frames

For those not familiar with animation or video compression, a key frame is a frame of the movie that is sufficiently different from all previous frames that it cannot be defined as "like the previous one but ... ". In a film or animation these usually represent a change in scene, camera angle or lighting. They are the frames which take up most bandwidth, not just online, but in our attention and concentration as well.

I have realised that recently my life has been filled with key frames. It's like watching MTV 24/7.

Deaths, moving house, relationship break up, change in habits. For a few years my daily life was very much made up of 'inbetween' frames. A typical wednesday could be described as "like tuesday, but a bit sunnier". Suddenly I am experiencing days which bare little similarity to the ones that went before them. Unable to assume the big picture and simply note the changing detail, I have to give my whole attention to the unfamiliar sights and sounds around me.

And the nature of what counts as "a change" is changing in itself. How confusing!

Having lived in stone and concrete boxes for so long, where street-works and changes in shop ownership were the things that made up the differences, suddenly I am immersed in seasons, migration, weather, propagation ...

Last week I attended the funeral of a very special person. Her friends and family describe her most perfectly as "the sweetest" person they ever knew. Perhaps it's not so strange then that, for me, that time has been marked, key framed, as the week the grapes ripened.

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