Monday, July 12, 2010

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

 Kelsey Avenue - Glider on Side Porch -1987

A picture is worth a thousand words, but we rarely put a thousand words to a picture…..but we could.  I am in the midst of putting together photo albums for my boys.  The photos date back 28 years.  I look at certain photos and can feel the moment.  I know what was going on with the people in the photo and with the world surrounding the people in the photo.  There are back stories, hidden stories and untold stories.  There are once upon a time stories and stories full of lore, humor and silliness.  There are photos of smiling children who five seconds before the camera blinked were crying.  

Why do we rarely take pictures of people crying?  It’s just as much a part of life as the laughter.  Then we could say, Aunt Susie is crying because her dog got hit by a car that day, or Uncle John is crying because the Yankees lost the pennant, or Cousin Fred is crying because his fiancé returned her engagement ring, or Cousin Susie is crying because she knows she’ll never find a way out of the small town she lives in.  Now those are pictures worth a thousand words. 

I love pictures and I love the pictures of my boys and my husband.  We have lived a busy, full, loving life together with more to come.  Someday I may tell a few of the stories in long form, but for now each photo gets a brief caption depicting the moment.  A thousand words will have to come later. 

3 comments:

  1. How true, how true!

    Someday I'll look forward to the longer text for some of the photos, too; though the photos perhaps say it better and our hearts often understand.

    Love, Judy

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  2. What a great picture! And thanks for the reminder that it's ok I haven't found the time to do photo albums yet! Hopefully I will be blessed with the time and inclination in the right season :)

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  3. Sometimes the right season comes at a surprising time. For me, right now, this has become quite therapeutic. As I go through my own struggles, I am reminded of the beautiful life we have had and it makes me feel very hopeful for what lies ahead. It has been a very Zen experience so far. I have made it from 1982 to 1992 with many more boxes to go but I feel quite accomplished already.

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