You can't step twice into the same river. Yes, we know about that. You can't step twice into the same bathtub. Or even your underpants. Everything is always changing. And sometimes you can't even step once into something. For instance, you can't photograph the present, when before you know it . . . there's no longer that present in sight.
This was our problem in the old days. Photographs at those times cost money. Hard to believe for people in 2023. First there was the price of the roll of film, then the additional money for development. And what if the pix didn't turn out? Always a possibility. The money for photos went to food and clothing instead.
But luckily something managed to survive. Here is a new painting of Dante's. It includes one of her favorite models in a swimming suit. Her mother, Judith. A girl who could have been Marilyn Monroe's body double. Man, she could have been another Marilyn! But she wasn't. She had a different destiny.
Why didn't I take more photos of her when we were living together? Well, why didn't I photograph over 1700 paintings I made during those years? It was the money, brother. Primarily. And someone stole my one nice camera, a Fujica. C'est la vie, baby.
But I'm glad there is some record of things, somewhere. And the beauty of life doesn't merely slide into the black hole of oblivion. Maybe the past wasn't perfect, but it doesn't mean it should be blotted out entirely. And consider this puzzling fact: the future creates the past.