Teach the Soul

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
Eleanor Roosevelt
1884 – 1962

One of my nieces has an adorable daughter named Nora. Nora’s a little more than two years old, but she’s already showing that she’s smarter than a lot of adults.

Not long ago, Nora and her parents spent an afternoon exploring a petrifiedÂ forest. My niece was documenting some of their time on video so they’d have a record of the experience.

A minute into the video, Nora turned to her mother and said, “Mommy, come on.” My niece laughed and said, “I’m coming with you.” Then Nora looked squarely at the camera, pointed to it, and said “Turn camera off!”

Even though Nora is very young, she recognized that her mother wasn’t fully engaged in their activity because part of her attention was absorbed with documenting the moment. Nora perceived that the camera was hamperingÂ their interaction.

How often do we let the desire to capture a moment interfere with our ability to be fully present in that moment and enjoy it? Go to any school play or graduation and I’m sure you’ll see almost as many cameras as people. And it’s not just the big events; the proliferation of social media has resulted in an unending stream of shared documentation — photos of everything from the clothes we wear to the meals we eat.

I can certainly understand the desire to record a special moment, or even an everyday one; we’ve watched that video of Nora at least a dozen times and we always enjoy it. But when we try to document everything, we end up robbing ourselves of part of the experience; we don’t fully enjoy the moment because part of our attention is spent on capturing and sharing it.

The next time you whip out your camcorder or cell phone camera, ask yourself how important it is to record that particular moment. Your memories of it might be happier if you fully experience it instead.

Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.
Thich Nhat Hahn