“Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth." ~ Proverbs 27:2
Brad fashioned himself a
photographer; an amateur not because of his lack of experience or equipment,
but because he gave away his photos to anyone who wanted them as long as they
didn’t resell them. Pictures were the
conduits to his best memories; ones that weren’t notable enough to leave a permanent
mark on their own.
Brad started shooting pictures early – back when a single
roll of film could last a month or more.
He had to be so much more careful with his shots as the processing fee could
break his meager bank account. Then he’d
wait eagerly for up to three weeks to get the pictures back.
Half of them were either overexposed by the sunlight or subjects
had red eyes from the camera’s flash. When he’d saved up enough money to get a Kodamatic,
it became pure joy having a photo appear in only 60 seconds. Even then, it was only used sparingly.
Recollections are quite the opposite of those celluloid
stills. Unless we visit them often, they’ll
fade in time and with them the very best of everyone who’s blessed your life will
vanish as if they never existed. Photography
gifts us the power of eternal memory.
How he longed to go back in time to that moment – to see his
Mom’s smiling face and hear his Dad’s precious wisdom. Still he’s reminded that those moments live on
in his heart.
If forced to limit his possessions to only those he could
carry with him, Brad would only keep those things that meant the most. Or, at least, an image of them even if it
were just a packet of school pictures.
The truth is as hard as we try, we can’t stop time. We can’t freeze it. We can’t film it. And we can’t post it online. All the photos in the world can’t keep it in
place.
So, he wondered: Do
most people today live their lives or just film them? People
go to concerts and film the entire thing. They record instead of actually enjoying the
concert. Is saving the memory more important
than living the memory? If we can
remember the moments we live, do we need to save them?
I guess it depends. Parents
who record their kids growing up makes sense. They’re too young to remember, so recording it
for playback later makes sense. Conversely,
a culture obsessed with self-expression and an insatiable thirst for attention
only grows when indulged. God would
likely object to the incessant habit of taking your own picture and then
posting them into the cosmos.
