I love airport exhibits because they are often very philosophical. An airport is a typical liminal space where you are in between different parts of your life, and this makes it the perfect place to think.
The Lambert St Louis airport has a photo exhibit that follows a real-life mystery. A cache of old photos was found at an estate sale in St Charles, MO. It featured a couple that, in the 1950s, traveled the world in a way that few people traveled back then. The photographer who found the cache placed them online and asked people to help him find out the identity of the missing couple. Who were they? Do they have any descendants? And why was the evidence of their unusual lives discarded like this?
Internet sleuths pored over the images and finally identified the adventurous couple. The final image of the exhibit features a terse message that solves the mystery.
“Hi. I’m their niece. I sold the photos at an estate sale” the message states.
The exhibit offers a very definitive answer to the question that rages on social media these days. Is it worth giving up on progeny to be able to travel more? The sadness of Harry and Edna’s discarded existence is answer enough.
Clarissa's Blog 
I had a great aunt and uncle like that. Good jobs, not fantastically rich, but well off. They were infertile. Never had any kids. Would’ve if they could’ve. They were neat people, and it’s sad they couldn’t have kids. But given that fact, why not see the world?
I remember being totally enthralled by their photo albums: they’d been *everywhere*, either through his job (he built hydroelectric dams, traveled globally to consult on projects) or after retirement: I remember albums from China, the Philippines, Russia, Egypt, an African safari trip, the American West, Brazil, Jerusalem, parts of Europe, Mexico…
ethyl
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sure that Harry and Edna weren’t childless by choice either. Back then it wasn’t that much of a choice and it’s doubtful we gained that much with neoliberalizing this part of human experience.
LikeLike
“why was the evidence of their unusual lives discarded like this”
Not sure if that would be my takeaway. The sad fact is that when a person of some age dies, no matter how well loved, there is a veritable mountain of things that have to be dealt with and/or discarded. What most people do is keep a few things with particular sentimental value or personal connection to the departed and pay someone to haul off the rest.
At a local flea market I go to, there are usually boxes full of dead people’s things from other countries (judging from the newspapers used as padding a lot from Belgium/Netherlands/Germany). Lots of personal things that meant something to the deceased but physical space for the living is finite.
In the second season of Toon (Dutch comedy series) the meek ‘hero’ has an encounter with an older woman named Trees who floats in and out of dementia and it felt like meeting someone whose stuff is sold in these cardboard boxes…
LikeLike
I’m reminded I need to clean out some closets…
ethyl
LikeLike