The other day, a friend I was texting sent me a selfie and asked me to send one as well... Nothing inappropriate, just kind of putting a non-emoji face to words. And I was reminded yet again why even the thought of taking selfies puts me into an irrational state of frozen terror, because I am the LEAST photogenic person I know >_<
Some people just seem to naturally be able to take a perfect selfie from any place at any time. My daughter has a friend who just somehow seems to look amazing in every single photograph I've ever seen of him... This was a long-running joke at one point, since every time she would post pictures on social media with this particular friend in them, virtually ALL of her female friends would go ballistic and try to get his phone number, street address, class schedule, or any other potentially identifying piece of intel from her by any means necessary. I think we decided eventually that this friend could probably post pictures of himself on the toilet taking a dump and STILL look hot... (No, as far as I am aware, no such pictures exist, because that's gross and just... Ewww.)
On the other hand, pretty much every candid photograph of me has me looking like a combination of Lurch from the Addams Family, the accomplice whose testimony puts the killer in jail in pretty much every Forensics Files episode ever, and one of the sexier Orcs from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. And in the vast majority of posed photographs, I look like I want to be literally anywhere else doing anyTHING else at the moment the shutter goes off. I'm not all that ugly in real life (I promise), but for some reason I simply do not photograph well :-/
This is not a post about the pros and cons of "selfie culture" or about how TikTok may be the single greatest threat to world peace in the high school classroom... I'm operating on too little sleep to go that deep. But ever since the selfie incident the other day, I've been puzzling over why I have such an aversion to having my picture taken, and I think I may have finally figured it out :-)
I think some people seem to have an innate knowledge of themselves and an ability to be still in who they are... When a camera comes out, they can pause and rest confidently in themselves long enough for an image to be captured of their face and their soul. Which continues to build their confidence, because they can look at the photos and recognize themselves and go, "Yep, that's me! :-D"
And then there's me. Those of you who know me know I am a force of nature, a hurricane in constant motion who cannot sit still or shut up to save her life :-D And I am still, at forty-mrphff years old trying to figure out who I am, especially with all of the chaos that 2023 dumped into my life. So while I am getting much better at being still and knowing that God is God (and I am not, for the record, just in case anyone was wondering ;-D), I have not yet learned to be still and know who and/or what I am :-/ So, in terms of still photography, this might explain why virtually every picture taken of me ever looks like your TV screen when you pause the video on a particularly awkward moment...
So, yeah, who knows... Maybe I've just solved one of the great mysteries of our time here. Or maybe I just felt the need to get this concept out of my head and onto the screen so I can go and enjoy my day off after a long and exhausting work week :-D
(And no, I shall not be posting any selfies here... That would kind of defeat the purpose of a semi-anonymous blog now, wouldn't it? ;-D)
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