I went on an outing with friends once, a class outing by a scenic dam once; quite a joyous thing it was-the sense of freedom that overpowers one when you realise you are in a place far away from where academic commitments demand you use your time a certain way was just wonderful-not to mention the breath-taking view of the still water extending across the horizon and the homely feel of green grass beneath one-(felt it even if I had safety shoes on. There was a point in time when we just went photo crazy, and if I remember well within a space of 10 or so minutes we had taken more than a hundred group photos which brings me to what I want to talk about today-the belief we as a society have decided that we need to be picture perfect.
We have convinced ourselves that we need to look good, flawless like everything is ok or that nothing has ever gone wrong or that we have never made choices that we regret. When everyone outside looks at us, they need not see any chinks in the armour that we project but we have to be something that falls under the guise of normal; so we apply make-up on our lives, we are extremely guarded even in the presence of those who care and who would be willing to help and all that everyone outside sees is a picture perfect life. It is only the sceptic and the cynic who could suspect anything not right beneath the surface but as for everyone else all they will see is the version of our lives that has been make-up adjusted and changed for camera angles.
And this is killing us, for none of us is picture perfect and none of us can be. This whole idea of picture perfect is ridiculous, every family has its embarrassing relative(maybe its you), at some point we have all made choices we could never be proud of and in spite of what we may try to project to those around us, we are very much human in the truest sense of the word and at some point we all have the core need to be known and loved for who we really are without pretences.
So what I have today is a challenge to all to be authentic, to be relatable human beings whom everyone can relate to and not some hyper perfect people that no one can realistically attain to, because the reality is this and I believe this in my heart-when we all look at every area of our lives, past and present I do not think anyone has it all together such that it is picture perfect.
