Aug
03
2012
The Courage to Put Your Camera Away
So many things in life fall into this category—events you simply cannot bottle for later—like the birth of a child, the funeral of a loved one, a sunset, the presentation and enjoyment of a great meal, a surprise party, a concert, climbing out of a cold tent in the mountains and restoking the campfire as you watch the sun come up, sifting through the rubble of a flood or a fire, kissing your daughter’s forehead as the nurses wheel her off to surgery, asking your girlfriend to marry you, or watching a thunderstorm roll in.
In our amazing era of digital immediacy, I can tell the world where I am and what I’m doing while I’m doing it. I can present myself as a busy man living a rich and full life. I can take pictures of my meals, log my locations, snap photos of the people I’m with, and weigh in on what’s happening around the globe 140 characters at a time. But none of these things mean I’ve been paying attention.
The degree to which we are able to be present in the moment, psychologists say, is one of the chief indicators of mental health and security in our personal identity. I can buy that. And I would submit that this takes a lot of courage.
You can read the whole thing here.
8 Comments
This just fills up my heart and challenges me all at once. I must confess, i am often so quick to want to ‘document’ every special occasion that i know i don’t just soak it in and absorb the full beauty of it. I don’t want to live my life looking through a lens, save the ‘lens’ of God’s grace to me in Jesus. Besides, the memory of some event where i was fully present is such better food than looking at the pictures i snapped while missing it.
many thanks for this today -
W.
I’ve seen a couple posts about putting your camera away, and in the past maybe I would have agreed. However, my wife’s youngest brother passed suddenly in a car wreck. We both absolutely cherish the couple of videos we have of him that we took on our iPhones. Any voicemails that she got from him she listens to over and over again. My wife and I, 1 year into our marriage, now make it a point to take more pictures of each other because it’s easy to forget little dinner dates, walks, or random goofy moments. We have frail and fading minds so I would venture to say it’s a gracious gift to have a camera in our pockets to remember precious moments in life.
Josh
Josh -
i’m so sorry to hear of the loss to your family – i have no doubt that those pictures and voicemails are dearly precious things as are the pics you snap on dates, etc. I think the thrust of this post, however, might agree with you that those things are precious, but also suggest that the actual times you spent with your brother in law, and that you now spend with your new wife, etc. are more precious and meaningful to you, if even for no other reason than you wouldn’t even have those special pictures w/o the event having taken place. He;s not saying don’t take pictures – he’s just saying we don’t need to photo-document every moment of those special times. Consider a couple in the middle – and throughout – their wedding ceremony whipping out their iPhones to snap pics of each other and the guests. you be thinking, ‘dude – just enjoy your wedding and put the phone away!’ The pictures can add to the joy of special memories and maybe even bring up details we hadn’t remembered, but i think we’d all agree the pictures are not as significant as actually cherishing the moment as it’s happening. would you agree?
Yes, of course. I agree with what he was saying. It’s my wife and both have seen a couple of posts like this and felt prompted to comment. I think it can be pictures put to social media can get out of hand. I believe all I was trying to get at in a nutshell: What James says is that we are a mist. My wife and I feel that more fully. Thanks Wes.
Josh
I have learned that the time to take a certain pictures, such as scenery, which don’t mean anything months or years later, is wasted time.
I kind of talk about that in my new song, I’m a Christian Hip Hop Artist from St. Louis, MO. I have asong off of the scripture: ‘Romans 12:2′ take a second and see this —> http://youtu.be/vOgD5hpQBvA
“Courage”? Seriously? It specifically takes “courage” all of a sudden to NOT snap a picture, or upload something to instagram, or make a status update on ?
I’m sorry, but I have more than a little difficulty equating the virtue displayed by Perpetua in the Colosseum with the ‘virtue’ of “living in the moment.” See, normally when we think about courage, we think about someone who, by definition, esteems the present moment–the moment of terror, the moment of fear, the moment of despair–with less value than a moment yet to come.
And what does this say about people who happen to enjoy photography, and for whom the taking of a picture is genuinely less about an abortive attempt to preserve a moment in time like a butterfly under glass and more a function of the enjoyment itself?
Whether he realizes it or not, all Ramsey has actually accomplished here is baptizing his own philosophy of enjoyment with a virtue like “courage,” while simultaneously condemning those who DON’T adopt this practice as cowards.
…but probably even more worrisome than that is the fact that so many people seem to be lapping this up pretty uncritically.
@l3gi0nnair3
One could say the same about your post and the word “Worrisome” or “condemning.” I don’t think it’s all that worrisome. And I doubt he’s trying to condemn anyone as a coward. It’s just a view he has, and it’s probably a good admonition to consider. Most of us could probably use a little less time capturing moments with our devices and more time being present in the moment. (I would say the same for tweeting and texting too).