There’s something true about it.
I couldn’t put my finger on it until
I started taking enough pictures
of myself to notice that the ones
I liked most were the ones where
I felt my best. What other reason’s
there for taking our own pictures
if not to remember, to look back on
periodically that version of us
we found best? And taking them
are we not also trying to picture
ourselves in the future, to remind us
of that feeling with a certain look
that we and others (we hope!) might
recognize, might look fondly on,
might nod and say Yes, that’s you,
that’s exactly what you look like.
This must be the case, and it must
also be good. Good to remember
our better selves. By what other means
could we keep being them if not
by remembering? A photo makes it
easy to know what it was like, and
how it must’ve felt, to be our best.
But not this one. This one’s I don’t know.
Maybe it’s the lighting. The time of day.
R. Charboneau
Robert Charboneau. 
This made me smile. I have too many of those “I don’t know.” pictures. Sometimes it’s definitely the lighting, maybe the time of day, or just my critical eye. Thanks for sharing. ☺
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Thanks Tina. I think we all have a bit of a critical eye.
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Wow, this resonated with me so much. I often look at photos like my college freshman student ID, and see that naive, excited face smiling back at me. It’s times like those when I think, “That girl had no idea what she was in for!” I can definitely remember what I was thinking and feeling in those pictures, and there was nothing that could prepare me for the four years ahead.
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Thank you so much Shiloh for the kind words. I keep my old school and work IDs too, and look back on them with the same uncanny sense. How different we become each time we look at them!
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