A picture is worth a thousand words….
That’s because those thousand words tell the truth and pictures have the tendency to lie.
It’s an illusion usually ~ the perfect set, the smile and tilt of the head showing minimal chins and just the right amount of “shoulders back and stomach in”. The background surrounding us is carefully cultivated, or in other words, crammed just out of camera range.
We work hard to take the perfect picture to look our best, and I fully believe we absolutely should post the ones that make us happy. We all need an image to remind us we have it all together, we make these clothes look good and damn…our hair is on point today.
But the words behind the picture are silent when you’re only relying on the image.
Because we don’t know the entire story, because we only judge based on what we see, we really have no idea of intentions, thoughts, of emotions.
So when we look at a “perfect picture” of someone else, we have no idea if they’ve crammed everything just out of camera range, carefully held their held just so, and smiled just the right amount of smile to even out the wrinkles and closed eyes.
We don’t know if they had a meltdown on the way to getting the picture made, if someone was crying on the other side of the wall, or if they just lost a job, a friend, a pet, a loved one, or a battle they weren’t ready for.
Yet we judge…..and we compare ourselves to what we see in the image.
I’m over here raising my hand because I have DONE. THE. SAME. THING.
I’ve compared my everything to one image snapped in a split second of 86,400 seconds of someone’s day. I’ve judged their everything based on my thoughts and opinions and life.
And ain’t THAT crazy?
I’m gonna raise my hand NOW to stop the craziness of comparing my everything to someone else’s seconds….and judging their everything based on my world.
Who’s in?
By the way, THIS picture was one of 45 I took in a span of about 30 minutes. I could look at it and find a hundred things wrong, but I’m going to focus on the things I find right about it. I cropped out the mess and the weirdness that is our life. And yes, there was a meltdown that day….both me and the teenager had one. But we picked up, and carried on, learning from and leaning on each other and our worlds that collide.
with Glitter & Grace,
Sasha