What You Don't See
Short post today. I'm a letdown, I know.
So I share these pictures because I want you to see them but also because I want to talk about how these pictures came to be.
You can see a lot of things in these photos. You can see me, holding a Mexican flag, wearing a suit with a Mexican flag pinned to the lapel. You can see scenes around Temple Square, including the beautiful Salt Lake Temple. You can see trees with leaves in the process of abandoning their limbs to be replaced by the Christmas lights that provide a spectacular sight each December for visitors of the Square.
What you don't see in these pictures is me struggling to find a good pose or trying to smile properly or asking my photographer what the freak I should do with my hands while she's taking the picture. These things all happened many times during the process of this small photo shoot.
Why don't you see those things? Well, because I don't want you to.
I've been planning on writing a post for a while now about social media (and I likely will still write it). One of people's biggest criticisms of social media as a whole is the fact that it misrepresents real life; no one is as happy in real life as they pretend to be on the internet. But the fake, carefully selected projections we show of ourselves online sometimes cause others to be jealous of our perfect lives.
Well, I can tell you that the time I spent in Temple Square was not perfect, or at least the resulting photos were not perfect. Madie took 165 photos of me today, but I only consider about 20 of them to be good enough to show other people. This is not the fault of the photographer (Madie did a fantastic job and I am so grateful that she took them), but rather the fault of my nonexistent modeling skills and my overly-self-conscious attitude. I don't want to share pictures of myself if something looks weird, because, well, I don't want people to judge me.
But I realized that there are other things you won't see in these pictures. You won't see Madie's pretty face or the fun conversations we had today or the friendship we've cultivated for long over a year now. You won't see the people who stepped in the same places I did, separated by nothing but time. You won't see the thousands of hours it took to make Temple Square what it is, and the additional time to keep it what it is.
What I realized today is that there are a lot of things you don't see. In these pictures, yes, but also in life. You can't ever know what someone is going through just by looking at them. So please, if you can, be kind. It's incredible what a difference you can make in someone's life just by sparing them a few seconds of goodness. You might not be able to see how your efforts help them, but I know that you'd be surprised by the results.
There are a lot of things you don't see, but I hope that you can see that everyone, whether in the highest high or in the lowest low, can ALWAYS use a little extra kindness in their life.
May I express the challenge issued by President Thomas S. Monson:
Today's post will be brief because it is late and I am busy. No excuses. Honestly I just need to finish up a couple things and I want to go to bed, but I wanna get something out there before it gets too late.
Today I went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City with my best friend Madie to take some mission pictures (which I will soon use to announce to family and friends some details about when I will go on my mission and when they can say their goodbyes and such. All extremely fun things, I know).
Here are some of those pictures, placed here for your viewing pleasure and also for me to talk a little bit about:
 |
| My personal favorite |
So I share these pictures because I want you to see them but also because I want to talk about how these pictures came to be.
You can see a lot of things in these photos. You can see me, holding a Mexican flag, wearing a suit with a Mexican flag pinned to the lapel. You can see scenes around Temple Square, including the beautiful Salt Lake Temple. You can see trees with leaves in the process of abandoning their limbs to be replaced by the Christmas lights that provide a spectacular sight each December for visitors of the Square.
What you don't see in these pictures is me struggling to find a good pose or trying to smile properly or asking my photographer what the freak I should do with my hands while she's taking the picture. These things all happened many times during the process of this small photo shoot.
Why don't you see those things? Well, because I don't want you to.
I've been planning on writing a post for a while now about social media (and I likely will still write it). One of people's biggest criticisms of social media as a whole is the fact that it misrepresents real life; no one is as happy in real life as they pretend to be on the internet. But the fake, carefully selected projections we show of ourselves online sometimes cause others to be jealous of our perfect lives.
Well, I can tell you that the time I spent in Temple Square was not perfect, or at least the resulting photos were not perfect. Madie took 165 photos of me today, but I only consider about 20 of them to be good enough to show other people. This is not the fault of the photographer (Madie did a fantastic job and I am so grateful that she took them), but rather the fault of my nonexistent modeling skills and my overly-self-conscious attitude. I don't want to share pictures of myself if something looks weird, because, well, I don't want people to judge me.
But I realized that there are other things you won't see in these pictures. You won't see Madie's pretty face or the fun conversations we had today or the friendship we've cultivated for long over a year now. You won't see the people who stepped in the same places I did, separated by nothing but time. You won't see the thousands of hours it took to make Temple Square what it is, and the additional time to keep it what it is.
What I realized today is that there are a lot of things you don't see. In these pictures, yes, but also in life. You can't ever know what someone is going through just by looking at them. So please, if you can, be kind. It's incredible what a difference you can make in someone's life just by sparing them a few seconds of goodness. You might not be able to see how your efforts help them, but I know that you'd be surprised by the results.
There are a lot of things you don't see, but I hope that you can see that everyone, whether in the highest high or in the lowest low, can ALWAYS use a little extra kindness in their life.
May I express the challenge issued by President Thomas S. Monson:
May we begin now, this very day, to express love to all of God’s children, whether they be our family members, our friends, mere acquaintances, or total strangers. As we arise each morning, let us determine to respond with love and kindness to whatever might come our way.Friends, I'll see you tomorrow.
