How to Own a Moment You Didn’t Live

But somebody else did...

I think I’ve been collecting moments since I was a kid.

Really, I was a weird kid. Not with a camera, a shelf, or a scrapbook. It was more like, I’d find a shiny rock in the driveway and think, this needs to be saved.

Or the way I kept those plastic swords from fancy drinks for way too long. I don’t even know where those came from or what the plan was.

Or how I used to collect stickers, comics, and little scraps of paper with some made-up character name and his hit point total. Thorneblade the Black was a badass.

I don’t know if that’s collecting or hoarding or just being sentimental with a touch of sun damage, but it feels the same now, somehow, when I click “collect” on a piece of NFT art.

Except the rock’s on a blockchain.

And the character sheet is… a JPEG?

I know how it sounds.

But still, admit it, you’re curious about Thorne. And you should be, he could wield two swords at once.

But back to this moment…

There’s a moment right before you collect your first piece of digital art ever, where your brain kind of panics.

That’s what people tell me anyway.

They think: “Wait… I’m paying for a picture? A picture I can right-click? A picture I can see for free?”

It’s like deciding to keep a firefly in a jar even though it’s perfectly fine just flying around your backyard.

You can see it. But now it’s yours.

And somehow that’s different.

Plus, maybe you saved it from Zane Bishop. Here he comes, his white shirt covered in the smeared, dead corpses of fireflies just to say, “Look, I’m the firefly now.”

OK fine, maybe I tried it once or twice. Everyone was doing it.

I feel bad, but this was a different time, and kids ruled the summer and into the approaching night.

That’s when things got really interesting, you know. That’s when we played Bloody Murder.

One O’Clock, Two O’Clock, Three O’Clock,….. Midnight!!!

Watch out because your candle only has so long to burn my friend. Speaking of candles.

I collected one recently that’s just a video of a candle burning. That’s it. A little flame flickering on loop, like it’s trapped in an endless wish.

It’s called “You’re Brave” by Inês Lobo

Ines is an amazing artist, musician, and human. In the video she is softly speaking over the flame. Not loudly, not preachy, just this soft voice that sounds like it belongs in the background of YouTube guided meditation video.

She says things like:
“You’re brave.”
“You feel it in the rain.”
“Only brave hearts walk through fire and still offer light.”

That’s the kind of bravery I needed to make it around the house on those long summer nights when I knew the bloody murderer was somewhere in the backyard… hiding.

Just waiting for me.

And maybe it’s the same kind of bravery I need today. Not to make it around the house, but just to make it through another day.

That’s why I collected it, that’s why I kept it.

Not just because I needed the words, but because I didn’t want to close the tab.

That’s what art does, I think.

It lets you borrow someone else’s strength, someone else’s experiences, someone else’s memories.

Someone else’s moment in time.

It gives you ownership over a moment you didn’t live through. Not legally or literally, but emotionally. Like spiritual squatter’s rights.

And when you collect it, it’s like saying: Hey, you, strange, weird human…I see this! I feel this! I want to hold onto it for a while if that’s OK.

The first NFT I ever collected was this jittery little thing by Janno Bergmann called ART. A fly crawling around a video screen, over the word ART as if it were trying to land on the idea of it.

No music, no narration, just the loop of that fly zipping around in random patterns, as if someone had trapped confusion inside a screen and hit play.

Per the artist’s words: “The word ART in the video represents art as an idea, and the fluttering fly represents the artist in his daily routine.”

That’s me. Fluttering around in a daily routine that feels mostly like… chaos.

It cost me 1 Tezos, at the time, that was like three bucks.

And I loved it.

It made me laugh. It felt honest. Like someone needed to make it. And I needed to see it.

That’s when I realized this wasn’t just about the art.

It was about the moment.

The moment I found it. The moment it made me feel something. The moment I got to say: “Hey, I’ll take care of this one.”

Collecting and owning something digitally doesn’t mean what people think it means. It’s not about exclusivity or resale value or speculative futures.

Sometimes it’s just about recognition.

About seeing someone’s weird, broken, but beautiful spirit and saying yes to it. Clicking the button. Making it part of your little invisible shelf of moments that felt too important to scroll past.

Some people buy NFTs because they believe in the tech.

Some because they want to flip them for a profit.

But me?

I think I just miss the feeling of collecting rocks and stickers. I miss pulling Thorneblade the Black’s character sheet and recalling all the adventures he had been on.

I’ve never been rich. I’ve never owned real art. I once stole a postcard from an art museum gift shop because I wanted to hang on to a memory.

Okay, fine, I didn’t steal it, but I did forget to pay. Let’s just say bathroom emergency, and I was like, “oh fuck, this is still in my hands.”

But still.

Digital art gave me that feeling again. Like I was allowed to own something beautiful without having to be special.

Without needing a gallery wall or a million dollars and a secret handshake.

All I needed was a digital wallet, some curiosity, and a reason to care.

Sometimes I like to go backwards in time. I like to filter my collection by oldest, and then I start to scroll.

There’s something strange and lovely about scrolling through a collection of NFTs you’ve gathered over time. It’s like looking at a map of your past feelings.

“Oh yeah, this one. I bought it when everyone was WAGMI.”

“This one reminded me of my Mom’s art. She liked flowers.”

“This one felt like standing in the woods right before it rains.”

It’s not really about the pictures. It’s about the version of you who found them.

The you who stopped scrolling for that split second because you felt something.

Anyway, that’s all I have. If you’ve never collected an NFT before, that’s okay.

You don’t need to start today. Or ever…

But forever is a long time.

And if you ever find yourself staring at a piece of art online that makes you feel something visceral, something with teeth, just know there’s a button.

There’s a button that lets you hold onto that moment.

And maybe that’s all collecting really is.

A way of saying: “I remember even if I wasn’t there.”

Even if it never happened to me.

Have an Excellent Day,

Michael

Hey friends, If you liked this post, and want to fuel the late-night madness and silent battles of creating into the silence, you can buy me a coffee. I’ll be up, thinking too much.

📸 P.S. One of my kind readers featured me on their blog in a segment called: "Three by Three" a nod to the print format (3x3) from their first childhood camera. She’s also looking for other photographers to interview. Maybe that’s you. So, if you want to learn more head on over to

KC Magrath

website here: https://kcmagrath.com/3x3

There you will find my interview where I explain why this girl is laughing so hard…

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