Thursday, December 26, 2024
If a picture is worth a thousand words, it’s worthless. 1,000 words can hardly do justice to the fullness of life, but that’s exactly what social media tries to do – to hide the excrement. It’s reducing life to a nano-spec that hardly tells the truth, but smells rotten. It’s nothing but a polished turd, for underneath it lies the smelly, difficult truth. What about the shitty parts?
If you see that well-behaved, smiling toddler in the image, where is the image of her throwing a fit after the camera is put down? If you see the loving couple posing on the deck of the cruise liner, where is the image of them arguing about the credit card bills that inevitably ensue? If you see the lovely Mexican Fiesta spread on the table, where is the image of the explosive, morning-after diarrhea?
The completeness of life can’t be told in 1,000 words. Nobody likes the hangover, but that’s the part of the story that lurks in the shadow. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then reality is worth so much more, because we’re afraid to admit that the downside keeps it laughable.
The fullness of life is hidden in plain sight. The dark, turd-ridden places of the mind and soul are kept secret, yet we hate to admit it. The tantrums, aches, struggles, and doldrums surpass the 1,000 words in a picture. To some extent, we all have unfulfilled, shitty lives, but social media flushes it down the stool. Everyone poops, but social media helps us extend the pretense that we don’t. I smell the “hidden” turds in the photos. Something smells, and it makes me giggle. Don’t be jealous. It’s only 1,000 words. That’s not the complete story.