The Pictures above the TV

         When was the last time you really looked at those old pictures above the TV, or on the wall, or in the album?  Take a look at them now if you can.  When you look at them do you feel sad, or happy?  How do you feel . . . really?

         Why do we take pictures only at happy times? Is it in order to look at them and feel regret that there have not been more of those happy times?  Is it so that we can, many years later, say "those were the good old days" and then go back to watching the TV underneath? Go back to the distance we feel, today, with the ones in the pictures?

         Why is it that when those pictures were taken we got so close together?  Though, even then, we stood side by side and not face to face.  How do you feel about those places, those people now?  Are the feelings you had in those pictures gone? Have the people changed?  Have you?

         How is it that we put the pictures around our house and forget what life was like back then?  Why do we have the feeling that we miss those people and that time, even if we are having good times together now?

         Why is it such joyous torture to see our memories?  Why do we try to capture something that cannot be captured? To remember something that we did not understand the first time?

         Joy cannot be captured by a camera.  In fact, joy can never be caught if we chase it.  Joy is in the present. Joy is always there if we don't look for it.

         Why do we have pictures above our TV's?  To remind us to keep putting more pictures above our TV's.