Description
In 2018, when I was visiting my grandfather for the last time before he died, I took this video of my grandparent’s fish tank as my aunt told a story (my father’s voice is in parenthesis). I most especially appreciate her use of the rule of three. My father’s addition, I think, adds a surprising amount of color to the story.
One day I came up here and she was moving these chairs, because they weren’t in just the right spot. (Oh yeah?) And then, the ol’ dad Aaron, he just… (laughter) got fed up. (It’s feng shui!) And then, I went downstairs and I came up again, and she was moving the couch!
Looking back at this moment, I remember thinking at the time about the numerous emotional and intellectual responses to so-called mental illness that humans have had over the centuries. A casual story about a family-member’s compulsive need to move furniture may be humorous enough in a given context, but for me it was a reminder of the complexity, and maybe even subtle beauty, to the neurodivergence present in my genetic heritage. The presence of the fish energy added yet another layer to this brief video that I don’t think I fully appreciated when I originally recorded it.
The Original
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