When it's time for company pictures to be taken, I get hailed as a rock star, especially by the ladies. Not because I'm a great photographer, but because I'm skilled enough with Photoshop's healing brush tool and liquify filter to take off the decades and the extra pounds.
Most of the time, I enjoy removing the little blemishes and thinning faces and necks to get rid of the flattened, chubby look my inept picture-taking has added. My goal is less to change the way they look and more to ensure the photo captures who they really are - to let the subject's personality come through a bit more. Doesn't hurt that it makes them happier with their picture.
Today, however, I took a photo I didn't really want to retouch. I cropped it down and adjusted the lighting - no problem. I wish I could leave it at that. Not because the subject was perfect, or even very photogenic, but because her face was creased and cracked with hundreds of fine lines. Her skin was the opposite of the smooth, youthful look I usually have no problem helping along with a brush stroke here and there. So opposite, in fact, it seemed wrong to erase the character all those little wrinkles added. It felt like I was stealing her life.
Yet this is what people want - to be altered towards perfection, however unreal and lifeless it may make them. Though I often wish I could make a voodoo version of Photoshop and liquify my many extra pounds away in real life with a few simple movements of the mouse, there's a story behind my obesity, just as there will be a story behind that final, successful effort when I change my lifestyle and lose the weight. Just like today's photo subject has a story behind her lined face that deserves to be told.
There's a thread of theology in the faith I've practiced all my life which seems to discredit flaws and celebrate perfection, which focuses much energy on someday being "transformed" into what G-d always intended us to be. I'm not calling this wrong, but neither do I think it's right. I think G-d has always intended us to celebrate life as we find it - perfection and imperfection alike. Mourn tragedy, yes. But when it comes to people, remember all are made in his image. Even the fat, the old, the infirm, and the dirty.
Today I found G-d in some wrinkles. Where have you found G-d lately?
