As someone who is much more quick to rely on auditory, analytical, or kinesthetic cues than visual ones, I’ve always been bothered by the adage that one picture is worth a thousand words. This is not to diss the importance of visual images for those who prefer that style of learning. I just think it’s important to recognize that one-size does not fit all when it comes to conveying information. There’s nothing that frustrates me more than directions that have only diagrams (no written instructions) on how to put something together. And I’ll admit, I’m a chump when it comes to trying to verify that I’m human by picking out the squares in the grid with bicycles or traffic lights. I just keep missing the images.
And while I do agree with writer/artist Leonardo Da Vinci that “a poet would be overcome by sleep and hunger before [being able to] describe with words what a painter is able to [depict] in an instant,” I find myself wanting to root for the poets, anyway–for the challenge of spending those sleepless, hungry hours trying to describe something. I guess that’s because words are the tools I’m comfortable with, while paints and brushes are not.
Nevertheless, we’re in the second week of our Vietnam/Cambodia vacation and I haven’t written anything, except last week’s blog post and a few emails to my mother. But one thing I have done is taken a lot of pictures. 132 just today at Angkor Wat.
There are some bad ones and repeats, which I’ll delete, but I’ll probably end up with around 100. Then I’ll post somewhere from 8-20 on social media with a very cursory description of what we did. Whatever semblance of poetry will not be in the words but in the pictures.
It’s just so darn easy with the click of a cell phone.
Often I haven’t liked taking pictures when traveling, because I’ve preferred to bask in the experience of being wherever I am without the burden of figuring out how to capture all the special moments in a glossy. I’d rather cherish whatever memories happen to stick. But as I’ve gotten older, fewer memories are sticking.
So I’ve been taking more photos, and learning how to do this better by being more patient–not snapping so spontaneously, but taking the extra second to think more about the frame, waiting for people to pass out of the way, playing more with zooming in and out to get the optimal perspective. I’m sure on some level, this more mindful attention to detail will bear fruition in my writing life, when I’m ready to settle into writing what I see, whether in the present moment, in past memories, or in my imagination.
In the meantime, here are 3 pictures of Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Probably better than writing 3,000 more words–or asking you to read them!
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