Thursday's Thought-A Thousand Words

Sorry I missed last week’s post. I spent Thursday night and most of Friday at a camp with a group from a local high school, and once I got back I had a very busy weekend.

A couple weeks ago, someone who reads my blog (and will remain anonymous throughout this post unless he or she decides to reveal him- or herself in the comments) sent me a message saying the blog was good, but it needs more pictures. While I am not opposed to putting more pictures on my blog, I am also stuck with a computer that will celebrate its fourth birthday next month, and which takes ages to load anything more than a Word document onto the internet. But the comment got me thinking.

What impact has the camera had on our society? On our understanding of beauty?

How much has having cameras easily accessible caused us to miss out on amazing moments in life because we were too focused on trying to get the best picture of the event rather than enjoying the event itself?

How much less creative does our language have to be now that we have the easy ability to “show, not tell” about everything in life?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, why did God not include any pictures in the Bible? And if words are important enough that God decided to use thousands of them rather than pictures, what impact should that have on the importance of words in our lives?

Would pictures more easily allow me to communicate to the world what is happening in my life?

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I think more pictures on here would certainly be beneficial, especially since I’m guessing most of the people reading this have never been to Asia. However, I also think that in our everyday life, our reliance on cameras and the instant and easy ability to capture a moment so we can relive it forever often costs us the chance of enjoying the original moment itself. I think words have a power to express the emotion and feeling behind an event that a picture in and of itself cannot do (have you ever seen a picture that adequately captured the beauty of the setting sun?)

I think it would be a fun (although time-consuming) exercise someday to watch something that would be a photographer's dream, but rather than bringing a camera, I want to bring a pen and paper to see if I truly have the creativity to come up with a thousand words to describe that picture. I haven’t done it yet. The idea still intimidates me. But I wonder what I’d see in that moment if I approached it with my mind, rather than my camera.