I’ve been dithering on this one. A couple of friends have suggested participating in an online photo-a-day project during Lent, and I’m not sure what to make of it. Part of me thinks that it’s a wonderful suggestion. Another part thinks I might be crazy to add something else to the daily list of things to think about. I like creative prompts. I have enough on my plate. It might stretch me. I might drop it after two days. There we go. And I go back and forth.
If you haven’t heard about these projects, the concept is to take one photo each day as an intentional act of focussing your attention. Anyone, anywhere can take part and the photos are shared via twitter or facebook. I participated in an Advent photo project a couple of years ago and I really enjoyed it – both taking the photos and seeing what others were choosing to record. But I also found it strangely wordy – the photos elicited a lot of comments and a lot of people apologizing for “posting late” or skipping days. I didn’t like the wordiness. These projects are offered as a space for personal reflection – introspection even – and yet the community location seemed to create a culture of accountability and guilt.
I’m not sure I want that in my Lent.
And yet, and yet, I keep thinking about it.
This is the project that cropped up on my facebook page from a couple of different friends.It’s offered by Rethink Church, a ministry of the United Methodist Church. I like Rethink Church – ever since I saw a sign on a bus shelter in Washington that read “What if church wasn’t just a place we go, but something we do?” Now, that’s a good question. And so I snapped a photo of it.
The good folk at Rethink Church have put together a list of words as a creative prompt for their photo project which begins on Ash Wednesday with Announce.
More dithering. I like idea of focusing on something visual. I like the idea that the word list might direct my looking. I like that I might be directed to see something where I might not usually look. It’s like a lectionary of sorts, isn’t it? A lectionary of looking.
I don’t like the idea of an obligation.
And I wonder how taking a photo can really help with introspection.
Maybe there’s something here. Maybe this project is something I can walk with this Lent. As a family, we’ll be trying out different disciplines but I think that despite the dithering, there’s something to the photo-a-day idea that might feel right. I’ll be posting the photos on twitter @messy_table
At least for a while.
