I am not a very photogenic gal. I have more than my fair share of unflattering pictures to prove it. Whether it's bad hair, bad angle, bad outfit or just plain bad, the camera does not love me.
Sometimes the snapshots of life are much the same. The snapshots of life are those little moments of time caught forever in someone's memory that do not always show me in my best light. They are mental pictures that may not accurately, or at least wholly, reflect who I am.
I dare say, we all have some hideous snapshots of life archived somewhere. Sometimes those snapshots are of ourselves, things we have done or said that we wish we could take back. Harsh words we've said to our children or spouses. Ugly, unloving or unforgiving actions we have taken against people we consider among our best friends. Callous, unkind or right down derogatory comments we have made about people we hardly even know, let alone have any right to judge.
We get caught in these unflattering poses for a lot of reasons. Sometimes it's just really bad timing. We lose our cool and react badly when circumstances don't go our way and then...SNAP...you realize someone caught that shot of you. It isn't who you always are, it's just who you happened to be at that specific moment.
Sometimes we exercise poor judgement merely because of youth or a lack of foresight, but nevertheless, that picture is forever etched in someone's mind. From that moment on, they see us in that particular light...careless, immature, selfish, lazy, rude..the list goes on and on. It isn't who we are now, but it's who they choose to forever see us as.
Sometimes we stick our nose into a place it never belonged, whether a real place or an emotional one. But by the time we realize we've gone too far, someone has already developed a very unattractive picture of who we are...busy-body, interloper, troublemaker.
Sometimes the flash of the camera catches us completely by surprise. We weren't even aware anyone was watching. Had we realized we had an audience, we would have behaved differently. We would have been more gracious, more cautious. While the image we produce may leave us feeling uncomfortable or compromised, we can deflect blame onto the one who captured the image because they did so in some covert manner.
But most often, it's our deliberate, willful choices that produce the most grotesque images of ourselves burned into the memories of others. The purposeful decisions we've made that have led to heartache or hardship...the thoughtlessness with which we've pursued our own objectives..the lies we've told...the rumors we've spread...the lack of compassion we've shown...the language we've used...the attitudes we have adopted about particular people whether because of their race, religion, economic position or political slant...all these things conjure up certain pictures of us in the minds of others, and they're not always pretty. Even things we've done with defined intent can leave regrettable prints behind.
We all have things we would do differently if we could, history we would rewrite for ourselves. We all hope to be seen in the best light possible rather than memorialized in some repugnant and abominable fashion. We all have snapshots of life we'd just as soon leave out of our personal photo albums.
So why is it that we are so quick to take these kinds of snapshots of others? And why are we so reluctant to accept that those isolated moments we catch of those around us may be just as distorted as some of our own snapshots of life? Why are we so unwilling to accept that the pictures we have in our mind of our fellow men and women may not truly reflect the entirety of who they are? Why do we lack mercy and grace when evaluating others when we so desire it when others evaluate us? Why do we focus on the flaws and failures of people rather than seek to find the beauty in them? Why can't we use some kind of Photoshop or Picnik when it comes to the snapshots of life rather than using a magnifying glass and highlighter on them?
Sometimes a picture is worth a million words, but even a million words doesn't always tell the whole story. Before I snap a picture of you, I'll try to remember that. And before you snap a picture of me, could you please do the same?
