Life in Pictures

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Time to pull out the holiday decorations, go pick out a tree and get used to peppermint replacing everything pumpkin. My favorite holiday tradition is finally here too: sending and receiving Christmas cards. I know these annual exchanges are sometimes maligned as annoying and pretentious and antiquated in the age of online social media. But I look forward to hearing from old friends since I never joined Facebook and LinkedIn only keeps me connected to those still working.

I joined Instagram in August 2017, a bit later than most and after the company was bought by Facebook (prescient, given Facebook is falling out of favor—and fast). Immediately a few friends found me and connected. Since then several dozen more have. I like that I can go through my feed and see every single post that day because it isn’t overwhelming. Some people want as many followers as possible. Not me.

When I was homesick for San Diego, I checked my feed often to feel connected to the place. I loved that when everyone else was complaining about the cold, my friends back home were still running in shorts and in places familiar to me. I love my North Carolina and my Cape Cod friends for the same reason – I still feel a sense of place despite having relocated many, many years ago. I started posting pictures from my travels and other, more talented photographers wanted to follow me. I had a funny description as my profile bio and comedians sent me follow requests. Lately, really fit people want to peek into my world. Sometimes I let them and sometimes I don’t. 

In some ways, Instagram is like a yearlong holiday card where we present our best selves. We get a peek at what we deem the important and the mundane moments that make up our lives. We use words sparingly and let the images (or hashtags) speak for themselves. We get to share what we want, with whom we want. This makes us all documentarians, curating images that chronicle modern life and collectively show the world as we see it, or at least want to see it.

The picture above is from a Saturday morning walk at Cardiff-by-the-Sea. I could have used a filter to make it look more cheery, less dreary. And I could have cropped out someone's partial arm. But like my holiday card pictures, I don't always manipulate imagery to flatter. 

I can’t say I get the same rush looking at Instagram that I do opening a holiday card. But both make me smile and make me grateful to have such wonderful people in my life. Both also make me want to continue to do good in the world and do right by the people closest to me. And maybe clean up my appearance, if not my act. At my age, that’s harder than you think.

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