Kodak Moments

Lenore Skenazy makes the statement,"We have gained a Kodak moment and lost the story of our lives." Skenanzy makes so many valid points in her Don't smile for the Camera article. She gives examples of her family and how the images they captured in their photographs and the videos recorded are not reality. Looking back on my life I can fully agree with everything that Skenazy says about capturing the moments that look perfect are not the true memories of our lives. One Christmas we were all at my grandma's house in Virginia, and my mom and aunt wanted family photos, so we all got in the living room in front of the tree to take the picture. I asked my mom continuously if I could take the picture and at the age I was telling me no was not what I wanted to hear. Well considering she her answer was not I decided to throw my own pity party refusing to smile or look the least bit happy in the picutres. My mom was pretty perturbed with me at that point, so I had to congure up a smile even though in my mind I was frowning. We continued through with taking the pictures and they turned out great a real hallmark card, although the image is an altered reality of the true emotions that were raging in the room that night everything seemed "picture perfect."
Reading this article really opened my eyes especially in the last two paragraphs. All our lives we as people and families try to make things look as though they are not, and this does not just occur in photos. When parents get together they usually tend to talk about their children and their accomplishments trying to out do the other, and when you walk into their houses on the walls are covered with family photos and individual head shots of their child's senior portraits. Sometimes the perfect image that we want to reflect to others may also be shown in the clothes we wear, cars we drive, or even how involved we our in our churches. Although skanazy only talks about creating a perfect image in a photo in order to deflect the ugly truth, we as humans do it in our everyday lives. Maybe we should all step back and look at our lives and although we may not have tons of money, fancy clothes, or even get along everyday with our families. Who wants to be perfect in reality? How can you experience life if you have never made mistakes or branched out into an imperfect world.