Worth A Thousand Words

Photography has only been around since the mid 1800s, that is so recent in the spectrum of the entire history of time. How fortunate are we that we get to capture our memories on pieces of fancy paper and keep them safely organized in books? Or even have thousands of photos stored into our phones, we can scroll though folders conveniently by date?

It is so funny that we take the simplest things for granted. The cave people of millions of years ago, and even the tribal people of a couple thousand years ago, tried to capture the most important happenings of their cultures in drawings left behind for our generation to decipher. We have found very little to this day. How much do we think there will be thousands of years from now, from the current society we belong to?

We are so small in the spectrum of the universe, but its so beautiful to feel that our memories matter. We are so well documented at this time that the future paleontologists will have too much to decipher. It is even more interesting to think that in the blink of an eye all of our digital existence could seize to exist. One solar flare, big enough to knock out the entire electrical grid of Earth. What are we leaving behind that would actually stand the test of thousands of years? Do we have carvings or drawings or photographs somewhere that are literally weather proof? Interesting how we are so focused on outer space and dreaming of leaving that we forget we only TRULY have this one place we can survive on. I think we need to do some soul searching, and help the planet we've got get through her next season of existence.

If we were to leave a legacy it should be one of peace and unity. What is going on in the world? Can't we share resources, knowing we all exist and need help from time to time? How did we get to this place where its every man for himself? The rich are only getting richer and the poor are sold more struggles. The world should have no boundaries, no one can own the Earth and that is the destructive thinking that got us here.

Would your photographs be worth showing to the next generation a thousand years from now? What are you giving back to the Earth? Are you appreciating the small amount of time you are given? What photos would you hang in your "cave"?

Touching the Earth is good for your soul. We are connected to this place that birthed us. We are Earth. We are elements that love each other so much they stick together to make our fleshy goop. Envision a world where all cultures can come together and know that gardening is a necessary thing to eat. There are no prey so big we cant hunt with standard rifles, bow and arrows, or knives. It sounds primitive but society has gotten too comfortable with the luxuries modern science has bestowed. We have strayed far from the path of living sustainably.

Over-population, over-consumerism, over-consumption, until it's all over.

What pictures are worthy of showing the next generation? What moves did we make to restore mother nature; to heal our home?

Photograph the ugly parts of the world, to bring awareness to humanity of what we have done. The trash, the oil spills, the fast-fashion dumps, the toxic water in our neighborhoods, the chemical plants dumping into the oceans, the animals consuming plastics until death, fat and starving children in America(and many other countries). Who knew that so many things could be going wrong at the same time? Who knew that the Earth has been slowly dying due to our actions? We know.

We have known for a very long time. We photograph it, gasp, and move on to the next bit of our show after having to sit through the commercial of the latest tragic happening. When will there be enough photographic evidence to convince the citizens of the world that we need to make changes?

Will we all throw our hands up when doomsday arrives? Will we all scatter and rush to leave our cave art so that we can warn the next inhabitants of our failures? What would you tell the next generation to improve on? Can we take little steps today to work towards a peaceful united Earth that we all support as a network? Will we ever be able to unify as a planet and agree that we are only here for a short time and we need to make it matter? We need to end hate and spread love. We have the capabilities of sharing resources faster than ever in history, yet we are still so stingy.

Everywhere you go the mission should be to leave it a little lighter. Even if its just a shared smiled between two random strangers. It's time to create and capture happiness though all of our lenses so that we can leave a resonating joy for thousands of years to come. We should focus more on the big picture, our ONE planet that all of us live on.