Look At Me, Look At Me

Instead of putting the selfie down, we need to appreciate it.  Bless it and thank it for revealing what many of us have known for too long.  That is this a society full of self consumption.  Now, we have a photo to prove it.

In trying to remember when this form of self-aggrandizement began, I suspect it was within the last five to eight years. After all, in a society where social network reigns supreme in the tell-all form of media, we know everything.  We know when people are bored, we see what they are eating because they photograph it, we know when people in a relationship, are out of a relationship, and how they spend your day. 

Some of this is really interesting.  This writer has received some very good recipes, learned gardening techniques and arrangements, seen storm damage and what to avoid. 

I do feel disappointed that our President succumbed to a photo op at the funeral of Nelson Mandela.  It was totally inappropriate.  It was equally inappropriate the unkind remarks made about Mrs. Obama as she was captured in the photo.  Maybe she wasn't annoyed as some suggest, just maybe she was listening to someone speak about Mr. Mandela.  She is doing what we all should be doing.  Listening to the life of a man who learned through his own experiences to release anger and turn it into good. After all, his first wife "accus(ed) him of beating her and threatening her with an axe – as well as having several affairs." http://metro.co.uk/2013/12/05/nelson-mandela-dies-the-complicated-personal-life-of-the-man-feted-as-the-grandfather-of-the-world-3861349/

So many of the people who are praised for peace have had such lives. Gandi is another example.  But I digress here.  Perhaps it is through one's violence within that often leads to violence in personal relationships that leads one's back to oneself in a more peaceful manner.  This is in no way an excuse for domestic violence.  It is however, analogous to the selfie. It begins with the ego.  A psychosocialization pattern of unconsciousness. Learned behavior. Rather than going within to self soothe, we go outside.

We are a young, immature society.  Full of self. Putting the self out for the world to see.  I am grateful for what the selfie reveals.

Look at me, look at me.