UncommonPromise

Holding a photograph, a friend points with delight at each person in the picture, introducing us to meaningful people in her life, identifying each by name. At the right side of this group is a woman who is no longer married to one of her best friends. “What a nice picture, too bad she is no longer in the picture.’” Without hesitation, our friend exits the living room and strolls into the kitchen, where she grabs scissors, pivots, and then in a grand gesture slices into the photo, eliminating the woman in question, rendering the picture just as she wants to see it. With great satisfaction she says, “There, that’s perfect!”


This little vignette struck close to home for us as we realized how often we do that in our own lives.  We subjectively remember and recount, as we select for our own purposes. Objectivity really doesn’t exist. We repeatedly tell altered stories, editing them, with each telling. We delight in our own embellishments and emphasize particular details. Each iteration takes on a slightly different focus and soon we are changing the changes. Clipped pictures figuratively fill shoeboxes stacked on closet shelves inside our heads. We periodically take them down and rummage through them once again just to confirm our recollections. We make the necessary modifications with self-confidence and intention, without a second thought. This simple editing process then creates our own personalized notation of life.

You may want to visit our other websites:

Uncommon Promise Video Channel

Under the Tuscan Thumb Blog

The UP Side Lowdown by Cheryl