Can I Take Your Picture?
I was walking to work. Yup, work. I had parked and began my rather typical two block walk to my office. Like many cities during the mask years, my city moved the inside, outside. The restaurants that line downtown brought their tables, chairs, the whole sha-bang outside into the street. I mean, who needed the streets then anyways? And like many cities, once we brought it out into the streets there was no going back. I LOVE this. It is so simple; MUNDANE tables and chairs in the middle of the street, but yet it brought to life the dead streets of my city during a time where life was few and far between. Since the mask years and the move outside, this street has been closed to cars. Which leads me to my next favorite part of this walk to the office. I bob and weave through little MUNDANE tables and I walk in the dead center of the street. Amazing!
Well on my way to work I noticed a group of, what looked like, high school students. It struck me as odd since it was a weekday at nine in the morning. Shouldn’t they be in school? But I quickly reminded myself that the high school, about four blocks away, often had classes that walked downtown. So I assumed it must be one of those classes. What a small way that a high school, one of the most insular environments in the country, can engage with the community that they are in. Just one simple, MUNDANE act of going out into the streets near the school instantly begins to dissolve the illusion that the walls of the high school are all the world offers.
As I walk by, a young high schooler begins to approach me. I stop. She looks at me and says "Can I take your picture?" Honestly, I really try to be open in my schedule. I really try to not have to make my plan, my timeline and just be, leaving room for little moments such as these. But I knew, even in my mind before she even asked that I was later than I wanted to be and I did not want to be stopped. You could even tell in my response, "Ummm, how long is it going to take?" Classic. If I cannot avoid getting stopped, at least I can make it seem like I am needed somewhere else. Which I was. "A couple seconds." Well dang it! I am caught. Because a couple seconds is not enough reason to decline her photo. I wasn't being open. I didn't want to let little MUNDANE moments of LOVE flow through my morning. I wanted to achieve my planned timeline.
Isn't it kind of frustrating when a high schooler, a Gen Z-er at that, calls you out on your control? Well, "Oh, okay then," I said. She held her camera up, I turned and simply smiled, and she clicked. Must be for a photography class. I thought to myself well that wasn't so painful and I immediately felt silly for even trying to avoid something so small and quick. Then she thanked me and as I left she said, "My teacher wanted me to take pictures of anything I thought was beautiful." She smiled at me as she said that. I turned back and just returned the smile as my heart melted out of my timeline for the day.
One moment. A couple seconds. A little bit of bravery. And one comment. That is all it took to change my MUNDANE walk to the office into a moment of LOVE. It would be a lie to say that interaction didn't change my day. It completely changed my day! I was happy. I was at ease. I felt seen, by a high schooler no less. Dang! I am so grateful to that high schooler who bravely took her MUNDANE high school photography assignment and turned it into a memorable moment of LOVE with a total stranger.
Isn't it kind of weird how sometimes true moments of LOVE come from those we're suppose to teach how to LOVE? It is just so natural in them. Maybe we need to be learning from them instead. Don’t you think?
