"What if I already have everything I want?
Then wish that nothing changes."
Something inside me has shifted of late, and my perspective of life has changed with it. Yet nothing significant has happened to explain the growing contentment in my heart.
Perhaps the changes have been silently creeping up, each one so tiny and seemingly inconsequential till they all add up to bring about this monumental ease of being. I remain oblivious through it all until a thought occurs, or when I blurt out something that makes me stop in my tracks and wonder, "Did I just say that?"
I was strolling around Ikea with an old friend over the weekend while discussing his interest for photography. I used to give him grief about how photography makes one miss out on living for the moment, yet I too have picked it up. I don't take back that statement though - I am aware that I have often been too caught up in capturing a moment to actually pause and live it. I am pretty sure the seamless transition of the sunset is in reality much prettier than the 32 stills I have stored in my DSLR.
Why then do we still have this pressing need to immortalize time? Is it an inexplicable need to prove our skill to others, to showcase our perspective, or to justify that we have indeed been at a particular place at a particular time?
As we walked around the many framed photos, often that of beautiful stills and cityscapes, I couldn't help but see the slums of India in my mind's eye. Is photography just another pursuit of beauty and perspective?
What positive impact can capturing a moment have on the greater good of the world? We have long established that life isn't fair, but should we be actively pursuing beauty when so many others out there are actively pursuing the chance to live? Yet we shouldn't be giving up all material pleasures just because we have it and others don't, should we?
Talk is cheap I know, because I don't think I'll ever be able to give up these selfish pursuits which make me happy. But it is something worth thinking about.
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