Picture Process

I'm looking at a picture of an old man sitting on a wooden chair in a large hall. There are rows and rows of these chairs. What is different is that each pair of rows is set up so it faces the row across from it. The man sits facing an empty chair. There are empty chairs to his right, to his left, in front of him and behind him. He is sitting in the middle of this large hall, among all of these chairs, but he is alone.

Someone or some group carefully set up these chairs for the purpose of interaction, since each row faces the row across from it. Is the man early or is he late? Is he waiting for the event to start or is he reflecting on what has already transpired? Maybe the event was cancelled, but he didn't know.

The picture leaves me with many questions. The dark browns and shadows and the solitary figure staring down at a brochure, program or maybe a book creates a mood of sadness. Sitting alone is one thing, but sitting in the intention of the chairs, each chair facing the chair across from it, creates a mood of 'disconnect.' What is it about this picture that bothers me so much? 

We are disconnected from yesterday as well as tomorrow. We have our memories of the past and our assumptions of the future, but even our memories are based on the colors we use to create them. Each of us has our own crayons with which we paint unique pictures, like fingerprints, alike but different from all the other fingerprints that exist. 

I love the creative process of video that allows you to remix pictures, clips and sounds from other sources, to tell a story much different from the one where the various pieces originated. However, the more I stare at this picture of the old man and the empty chairs the more fascinated I become. I am beginning to understand that a single picture has more dimensions and more story line opportunities than a video.

Both draw from the spirit of the one observing to tell the story that is unique to the beholder. This picture does not change. It is what it is. The power of the picture to touch my spirit comes from my spirit, not the picture. So now when I ask why the picture bothers me so much I understand I need to look within. The same picture may have no effect on someone else.

Because we focus so intently on what happens to us in life we fail to appreciate that our reaction or our response to our experience is what makes us who we are, not the experience itself. 

Abuse, pain and sorrow have decimated and scarred many, making them instruments of pain and suffering to others. But there are those who have emerged from this darkness with great empathy. Our reaction or our response is what forms us into people of anger and revenge or people of mercy. The rain falls equally on both, but the Bible calls the former foolish and the latter wise.

We are told for every action there is an equal reaction. We react when we don't get our way, when others are inconsiderate and when people don't believe what we believe. We live in a world of reaction, but God has told us to respond with the mind of Christ. That means we stop using crayons to color our past and future, we stop doing things our way, and we respond to God's self-disclosure with worship to God and compassion for others.