Pictures and Details

Sometimes I am convinced that all of us are extremely similar, we just express our thoughts, emotions and feelings differently.  I think that deep down we all have the same desires and aspirations.  Other times, I am convinced of the exact opposite - that the only thing we have in common is that we try to communicate with one another, with varying degrees of success.  Today was one of that latter type of days for me after I got a phone call from Sarah.  It went a little bit like this:

"So, Jennie (Sarah's sister that she's staying with) just reminded me that she owes me a picture.  Originally I was just going to have her paint a nature type scene for me, but then I thought I should probably call you because you actually care about home decor and how things look." (I was going to put "emphasis added" until I realized that the way she said it put the emphasis there for me.)

We talked about it and decided a nature scene would be grand, which then got me thinking.

Why is it so surprising that I care about the way things look in our apartment?

This took me back to when we were putting up the pictures in our apartment.  I think Sarah got to the point where she was thinking come on, Bryan, let's just put the pictures up and be done with this already.  While I'm thinking these pictures are going to be here for at least a year.  I can't have a picture bother me every time I look at it.  If the matting doesn't match the rest of the room, it very well may bother me whenever I look around the room.  The frames need to match if we put the pictures by each other.

It's times like those that I realize how different I am.  I like to tell myself that it's a good thing that I'm so into the details of life because I think it helps me understand and appreciate the bigger picture more.  I could be completely wrong and it could be that I just get distracted by the details.

I'll share another example that happened just yesterday.  I drove up to the Oklahoma City Temple yesterday morning and decided to take some pictures of the temple after the session.  I was trying to get everything just right (trying my hardest to get the temple level and not crooked in the picture) when I took the picture.  Only problem was that a couple was walking out right when I took the picture.

 

 For some people, this picture may suffice.  They may say I got a picture of the temple and I'm happy.  I won't even notice that couple when I look at the picture.  Not me.  Every time I look at this picture, my focus immediately goes to the couple walking out of the temple.  So, rather than making them feel awkward, while I hold my camera and tap my foot impatiently waiting for them to get out of the picture, I decide to take a lap around the temple and see what other pictures I can take.

 

 I decided one of the temple name would be nice.  Now when I look at it, I notice how bare some of the plants are around it.  What you won't see a picture of is the fountain on the back side of the temple.  When I got around to that side, there were a bunch of kids running around and a very exhausted looking father with them.  I decided it wasn't worth an attempt at a picture to try to get that dad to round up all of his kids for me.  I have a feeling that some day I may understand how that father felt.

 

 Here's the east side of the temple with the stained glass windows of the Celestial Room.  Not the most beautiful picture but I kind of felt bad walking out on to the grass, so I didn't walk out that far.  (Not to mention, there isn't much of a lawn around the temple and I'm not sure where the property line is between the temple grass and the neighbor's lawn - the temple is in the middle of a neighborhood, and yes, the lawn is shared with the house next door.)

 

 Finally, I got around to the front again.  However, there was a man walking out of the temple and his wife was waiting in their car.  I tried to move to the side and get a picture really quick without him or the car in it.  I succeeded in that regard, but the temple wasn't centered in my picture.

 

 So, I waited until they left and took another.  That sure was an adventure just to get this one picture.

 

I then thought that it would be nice to have a picture that isn't straight on, so I took one from my car.  I know there is a lot of sky in the picture, but it is because I was trying to not get the cars.  Alas, I failed (but didn't notice until now).  So, if you read this post and noticed everything I did about the pictures, then maybe we are more similar than I thought.  On the other hand, if you read it and thought to yourself man, Bryan is weird then I'm glad that at least we try to communicate with each other.