Pictures

I've been thinking about pictures lately. We had the family picture taken on Sunday - there were 22 of us. Before that I had taken my camera for the vacation and it turns out all I had left was black and white film - so that got me to thinking of taking some "artsy" pictures. I took some pictures of Sal and Jack on the bridge in front of our house. But then it occurred to me one night coming home to go up the gravel road and take some pictures.

Pictures - they're usually of something that really isn't true. Like our family picture - my kids NEVER look like that. For one - they're NEVER clean. And Sal wasn't on Sunday - on the way to get our picture taken "the marker marked on her". It was a brown marker and she was wearing a dark brown shirt. :-) But you get the idea. My kids don't sit or be still that long either. They're always in motion - if their bodies aren't their mouths are. :-)

Even my "artsy" pictures. The gravel road with grass growing in the middle - from the picture it looks like it goes no where. It goes to Quincy - I know that - see pictures are of things that aren't. They don't show the "real".

They don't show the anger in the hearts of family members. They don't show the worry in their hearts or the stress in their brains. Some don't even show the disease or the disability. No, pictures don't show the real us. We all do a HUGE job of hiding that everyday.

It amazes me that I can still - after all these years be so clueless as to a person's motives or convictions. I have to say I'm surprised almost daily at people. Sometimes I'm surprised at how kind people can be and sometimes (all too often, I'm afraid) I'm amazed at how clueless they are. How inconsiderate and unapologetic they are.

But then I thought about how pictures don't do us justice either. Like can they see the love I have for my husband and kids? Does it show the lioness that comes out when one of them is attacked? Does it show the sheer joy in their hearts? Or the pride we have for one another?

That gravel road - you can't tell from the picture how important it is to some people. How many times we went down it and squealed at the hills "getting our tummies". No, pictures don't show it all. I guess that's why I'm not as "into" pictures as I am words. But do words really do it either? :-)

I'm in the middle of "Autism and the God Connection". FANTASTIC book. I swear that Sally was one of the study samples! Finally a book that addresses our belief of telepathy and psychic ability not to mention the spirituality that she exhibits. "God kisses you goodnight in heaven."
She told me this when she was all of 6 years old and only had one year of talking under her belt. And it wasn't a question - she was stating a fact. Seems to me that maybe Sal can really "see" pictures.