Someone asked me this question anonymously on formspring and it stirred me so much that I decided to create a blog post. Unfortunately I somehow deleted the question so whomever asked, it was not intentional.
First, this is such a beautiful question, thank you.
I find that my own “meaning of life” has evolved (and continues to do so). The most important qualities are empathy and compassion which can be summed up as “loving”. Adding the suffix “ing” to the word “love” provides answers to a lot of questions, calms the mind in times of hurt and/or fear, and humbles us among our very own [humanistic] concerns. Only in the recent months, literally, have I reached a new understanding about “love”. I am NOT referring to romantic love, but about loving from a mental, spiritual, and emotional place that seems impossible to manifest “love” — I am speaking here about emptiness and continuing to “love” when we feel incapable of doing so, when we feel exhausted from all sides. Perhaps in today’s society we have forgotten what love is? We want to feel love, loved, adored, we want people to see us and hear us to a degree that we feel (a sadly superficial) love. What if, we replace the word ” love ” with the word ” give ” ? When I think of the role I play in an eternal sense, I want to give, share, and show… it is the only avenue for growth and new knowledge. I think if we go into every situation thinking “what can I give to this” instead of looking for something to gain, things start to guide themselves in the right direction, towards enlightenment, and towards the reality of what we might become after we die. The unknown, wow. How haunting, incredible, beautiful.
The goal in my life and in my work is to share my view on how important it is to embrace people for who and what they are, to make an effort to understand how we might relate to them, to consider what we may be able to learn from one another, and to each open our minds up to the possibility of making a significant impact in one another’s lives [and how to do that without being intrusive]. It is the only way to prepare for whatever lies beyond this life and YES these concerns have everything to do with my work. “Truth” isnt necessarily consistent because it evolves, but seeing truth even in fragments is what gives me hope, and I hope those fragments are the things I can capture and show others to give them hope as well. Even pain when shared with the right person at the right moment, can be the first step toward some incredible realization that results in only positives. The most fragile things that I have seen were during moments when I was consciously practicing empathy, and I’ve taken note of this since I was a very young observer, so yes, I began to consider these things very early on in life. What has grabbed me is having seen people pretending or hiding behind some quality that they have constructed as means to protect something that they do not want others to know or see. The reasoning behind this behavior intrigues me because it is universal, and almost always for the sake of acceptance or to feel that superficial form of “love”; if not that, out of fearing what real acceptance might be, or worse, fearing one’s self. My camera helps me distinguish what has potential to be of eternal significance and what is most likely only temporary [when I review photographs of people]. It is fascinating to see how each individual reacts not only to the camera, but also to how it feels when that moment is exclusively their moment and no one else’s. That fuels me right now, regardless of the type of work I am doing.
I can only hope to have articulated this answer in a way that shows the passion I feel discussing it.
Thank you for reading!
by Michelle Black
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