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I’m going to go backwards a bit in this companion and deal with the last thing first: Live a Great Story sounds simple, right? And yet, it seems we all need (at one time or another) to be told to do so. Well, check out the LAGS link and if it’s your vibe, get your own motivation in gear.
Now that that is out of the way, what’s all this about eternity and religion and the like? Mythology is arguably humanity’s effort to figure itself out. Witness the similarity of origin stories or morality tales from across the cultures that had nothing to do with each other. (This is not an invitation to proselytize or preach regarding your favorite — or unfavorite — religion in the comments; please refrain.)
Campbell, in the PBS documentary referenced (available on US Netflix as of the writing of this post), makes the argument that eternity, as it relates to the human experience, is actually quite short. Why? The frame of reference is the human lifespan. For each of us, that is our eternity. Will we waste it or will we embrace it?
Photographers who learn, improve, and grow over time almost automatically embrace their eternity; it would take effort to avoid it. For others though, it may not come as easily or fundamentally, no matter who exhorts the effort. John Kennedy, Joseph Campbell, Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, numerous others each enjoin(ed) you, all of you who are or might ever read this, to live your own life, do awesome things that ultimately take advantage of your special you-ness, and resist the urge to dawdle in the doldrums of someone else’s expectations, whether they be low or high. Every day, you have a choice about your response. What will it be?
Live (and visually tell) a great story indeed.
Until the next time…
