Blame this rant on Mr. Stevens, the mysterious man of many names, my friend in chat for a few years now.

His tender musing on the power of photographs got me thinking of my good-sized cardboard box filled with unknowns.

You see, my interest in the past of my family has not gone unremarked, and now when someone elderly passes on I am often gifted with old pictures.

And while I know the people in the pictures are kin to me, many times I have no idea who they are. No one thought to pick up a soft pencil and gently write a name and perhaps a date on the back of any of these pictures, because they thought they would always be remembered.

How many times have I spread these and countless other pictures out and tried to match them to the faces I know, people I can name? Who is the man with the big meat cleaver? The laughing baby? How many times have I sent scans of these photos to new found kin in the hopes they can put a name to a face long gone?

Truly, I have lost count.

Take a moment, pick your favourite photographs, and using a soft pencil, pressing gently, write your full name on the back. If you know roughly when the picture was taken, add that. Be careful what you use to write with, some inks will do great damage.

Someday someone will want to remember you.

Help them do it.