Graphic Involvement

For the past couple of years, Nicholas Feltrum has given out survey cards to every person whom he had a meaningful encounter with. At the end of each year, he organizes all the data into several aesthetically pleasing graphs. Like coffee spoons, I think it would be so comforting and so satisfying to be able to have my life measured and presented in such a way. The whole process, though, would probably lead towards my navel morphing into a black hole of existential despair. As it is, I'll stick to recording how many times I watch the video for South Side, in a given week, as the measure of how my life is going.



Good lord, the video ruins that song. ("Yes, Joey, it's the video that ruins that song.")

Update: And here we have someone who is finding meaning listing her graphic involvements.

When I was a kid, I collected things. At one point I was into key chains—I put every new key chain on a string and wore it around my neck at all times, even though it was long and heavy and I was 3’9”. I just liked having it with me. It was fun to look at when I was bored.

That’s a little bit how my list feels: each new experience is something I get to string onto the chain and keep, even after the relationship—or just the relation, as the case may be—is over. One sits comfortably against the next, and when I look at them together I can find patterns in the sequence.

As time goes on, the emotional power of each muddled, fraught experience fades, and it becomes something I can digest—something I can work into a story and draw meaning from.