Unbound Coaching

The day I spent in Dallas was one I’ll never forget. This was mostly due to being able to visit the Book Depository and the museum there. I was raised on stories about JFK’s assassination, and being in the room where it happened was eerie, and fascinating, and pretty freaking cool. 

An image that has stayed with me for years, though, was outside on the street. There are two x’s that mark where Kennedy’s car was when he was hit by those two infamous blasts. 

I sat on the grassy knoll and people watched for a while. I couldn’t believe how many people ran out to the middle of the road, frogger style in between cars, to crouch down on the x’s to take a selfie. 

It seemed so–morbid. So strange. The idea of crouching there, in that exact spot, kind of gave me the willies. Not to mention the inherent danger of playing frogger on a busy Dallas road. But it also fascinated me. On a street where there have been so many photographs taken and studied–even a film that’s been studied frame by frame–here are people lining up to take more pictures. And pictures of themselves. Holding up their hands in a peace sign. Grinning.

As much as I kind of judged them, I also sort of understood it. I also wanted to document it all. This was a bucket list moment. Somehow just experiencing that museum that day with a friend wasn’t enough. I wanted to somehow remember everything I saw. I wanted to share it with others who couldn’t be there.  

But is there more?  Is there more to the desire to want to share and to take selfies in all of the places we go? We want to be there—anywhere. Everywhere. We want to touch history. And I think we want proof that we were there, where important things happened. That we lived. That maybe we’re important too. That we experienced. We want to share ourselves and what we see broadly, even when it’s across a faceless internet. I was here, too. I am leaving a mark too. My story in connection with this story, also matters.

I still wish I would have gotten a picture of the selfie-takers, purely for the shock of it all. And I get the irony that I will share my pictures with you, here. I’ll share selfishly because I want you to see that I was in a room where important things happened, and also because I want to share the experience with you.

And the truth is, my experiences matter and so do you yours. There are marks that we make in our worlds every day that can’t be photographed–that no selfie would do justice to. Lack of photographic evidence doesn’t dismiss the importance of our lives.