Pausing for Poetry

I've never been a good picture taker. When my boys were growing up mothers all around were whirring video cameras and snap, snap, snapping away at every event from birthday parties to soccer games to kindergarten graduation to Sunday School sing-a-longs. I felt like if I always had my eye behind the camera I would be missing out on the real experience. I wanted to be fully present in my life. I didn't want my children performing for the camera, I wanted them authentic. Needless to say, I don't have many photo albums! I force myself to take photos now because I want to share with my dear blog readers. That said, I found a poem that expresses my feelings exactly. It's always fun to find a kindred spirit and Wendell Berry is mine when it comes to photographing life experiences.

The Vacation
by Wendell Berry

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
With his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.