Along with my blog posts and other “best of” albums from Europe, I’ll be sharing albums of the people and faces I encountered while on the trip. These are unvarnished people. A few of them are conventionally beautiful, many are not. Some seem to be having fun, some to be sad, others distant, some disturbed. Some are alone, some are in in groupings of various relationships.
But each one of these people has a story to tell and I would bet that many of their stories are very different than mine. I can honestly say that I would want to hear every one. Some of them are probably living run-of-the-mill lives, some are living immorally, others are saints and martyrs. Some are run down and left to the side, others are at the top. Still, who knows what sacrifice, tragedy, joy and ecstasy each has known? It is a source of wonder to me that each of these people is bearing the image of God through their time here on earth with as rich and complicated an interior life of my own -- none to be laughed at or in any way despised.
Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
G.M. HopkinsClick below to view the slideshow or double-click to view the album and additional options.
If you cannot navigate the slideshow above, click here to go to the album.
Though I haven't had a chance to look through all of your photos yet, I know already that your shots of people will probably be some of my favorite. You have captured some of my own thoughts and feelings in this quote:
ReplyDelete"It is a source of wonder to me that all of these people is bearing the image of God through their time here on earth with as rich and complicated an interior life of my own -- none to be laughed at or in any way despised."
In my opinion, if there is one thing from your travels that you should pass along to your children, have it be this. Developing this way of seeing and relating to people is so crucial.
It's really difficult to explain how deeply I feel about this subject, yet the older I get, the more passionately I feel for humanity...for I see myself in so many of them and I grow to be more compassionate by opening myself up to people who are different. Smile at the baby who's on his mother's hip as she's smoking that cigarette. Engage with her. Offer to hold him. Say "hello" to the homeless. Give them a buck. Turn your car around to ask if that lady needs help carrying her groceries. Don't stare at the tattooed man with piercings all over his face. Instead, smile.
When I was going through my in-depth studying of James Joyce, I wrote down this quote from ULYSSES and it comes back to me often:
“Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love. But always meeting ourselves.”