The Long View

As a photographer, I find landscape images much harder to do well than close-ups. Somehow zeroing in on something right before me is easier. The key to landscape photography is creating perspective. A beautiful and moving scene requires something to give the viewer a context. For example, the Grand Canyon is probably one of the most spectacular places on this earth. But to aim one's camera straight at it often produces images that lack meaning - or even give any idea of what this majestic place is.

Reading the newspaper or listening to the news is much the same. It is much easier to focus on individual items. With today's instance Internet access, the news often smacks you "in the face," leaving you reeling as to its meaning. As one op ed columnist said recently, "Has Washington Gone Nuts?" in reference to the failure of the budget committee. There are the protests in Egypt and the Occupy protests that have spread so quickly, sexual abuse scandals, Iran's nuclear capacity, poverty rates, pizza as a vegetable, people suing people, and the "death page," as we call the newspaper page itemizing individual violence and death for the day . . . The list goes on and on.

After coming up for air, a person can easily wonder if the whole world  indeed has gone crazy.

Then there is the long view. Clem and I were talking this morning about how to put day's news into perspective.We talked about changes we have seen in our life-time - changes no one even notices today. We remembered a friend from decades ago - a black man married to a white woman - and how dangerous their marriage was in some parts of this country. Or how when I first began working professionally, women were not allowed to own property in several southern states - and, as women, were virtually considered property. Who notices today? The past helps provide the long view.

Today's issues actually give us hope, precisely because they were not issues decades ago. Many of the world's current issues are about things that no one noticed decades ago. Who ate pizza, questioned the distribution of wealth, or considered challenging dictators? Sexual abuse "did not exist" unless it happened to you - and you never dared to speak up. And Eisenhower's voice questioning the military-industrial complex was "heard" only because he was a general. But we trusted our military leaders to know what was best for us - and the unholy industry of war continued pretty much unchecked.

Perspective is both about recalling the past and projecting our hopes into the future. A future where sexual harassment and abuse are greatly diminished. Where war is not a central premise upon which we spend our tax money and where human life is sufficiently valued that the killing radically decreases. Where our food is not a primary health issue in terms of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

The long view. , , it is the essence of all our current messy issues and news.