The camera that never got used
I used this illustration during a recent Yokefellow session.
A grandmother wanted more pictures of her grandchildren as they grew up. The family wasn't taking many pictures and the pictures they did take weren't very good quality. So, at Christmas time she went to Circuit City with another family member who had experience with digital photography and knew quite a bit about cameras.
They picked out a really good Kodak digital camera with good zoom, nice LCD display and an HP color photo printer with the builtin card reader to go with the good digital camera. Christmas day, the family with the grandkids got the digital camera and printer as gifts.
The printer got hooked up within a month, but the camera remained in the box. There was some confusion about how to charge the internal battery pack. So it didn't get used. A couple of months later, a friend helped them find the charger and charge the batteries and take a couple of pictures.
But the camera still wasn't used then. Perhaps there was the thought that the battery charger cord had been lost, but it hadn't been. Somehow the family got the impression early on that the camera didn't work, or was missing a needed piece or something and the camera was not being used at all. It wasn't kept charged up and ready for use, it wasn't used.
Eventually, the family friend that knows digital cameras stopped in and checked the gear out and found that the battery pack needed replacement due to lack of use (after a year). So, she bought them a replacement battery pack, charged it up and showed them again how to use the camera. She even had the kids take some pictures and they seemed to enjoy using the camera.
But the camera remained largely unused.
One day, there was a special event taking place that the grandmother could not attend. She asked the family, "Please, take the camera, take pictures for me so I can see some of the ceremony." But the family said, "We don't know where the camera is, and it's not charged, and it needs a battery or something. Perhaps we can stop at a store and get a disposable camera if we have time, but we probably won't have time to do that and they don't take good pictures anyway."
The point is, they never accepted the gift of the camera. Sure, they had it in their home. But they never saw it as theirs. As really theirs. It never became part of their lives. An option to use. A tool to produce something worthwhile and worth sharing.
What gifts have we been given that we never really accepted?
I've been reading "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I tried reading this book years ago (20 years ago - can it be that long ago? yes) and had trouble understanding it. Now, it's making sense. He writes about "cheap grace" vs. "costly grace". Yes. Yes. Yes.
For so long I've had the camera, but haven't appreciated it's value, purpose or presence.
Just having the camera in the house doesn't change a thing, does it?
A grandmother wanted more pictures of her grandchildren as they grew up. The family wasn't taking many pictures and the pictures they did take weren't very good quality. So, at Christmas time she went to Circuit City with another family member who had experience with digital photography and knew quite a bit about cameras.
They picked out a really good Kodak digital camera with good zoom, nice LCD display and an HP color photo printer with the builtin card reader to go with the good digital camera. Christmas day, the family with the grandkids got the digital camera and printer as gifts.
The printer got hooked up within a month, but the camera remained in the box. There was some confusion about how to charge the internal battery pack. So it didn't get used. A couple of months later, a friend helped them find the charger and charge the batteries and take a couple of pictures.
But the camera still wasn't used then. Perhaps there was the thought that the battery charger cord had been lost, but it hadn't been. Somehow the family got the impression early on that the camera didn't work, or was missing a needed piece or something and the camera was not being used at all. It wasn't kept charged up and ready for use, it wasn't used.
Eventually, the family friend that knows digital cameras stopped in and checked the gear out and found that the battery pack needed replacement due to lack of use (after a year). So, she bought them a replacement battery pack, charged it up and showed them again how to use the camera. She even had the kids take some pictures and they seemed to enjoy using the camera.
But the camera remained largely unused.
One day, there was a special event taking place that the grandmother could not attend. She asked the family, "Please, take the camera, take pictures for me so I can see some of the ceremony." But the family said, "We don't know where the camera is, and it's not charged, and it needs a battery or something. Perhaps we can stop at a store and get a disposable camera if we have time, but we probably won't have time to do that and they don't take good pictures anyway."
The point is, they never accepted the gift of the camera. Sure, they had it in their home. But they never saw it as theirs. As really theirs. It never became part of their lives. An option to use. A tool to produce something worthwhile and worth sharing.
What gifts have we been given that we never really accepted?
I've been reading "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I tried reading this book years ago (20 years ago - can it be that long ago? yes) and had trouble understanding it. Now, it's making sense. He writes about "cheap grace" vs. "costly grace". Yes. Yes. Yes.
For so long I've had the camera, but haven't appreciated it's value, purpose or presence.
Just having the camera in the house doesn't change a thing, does it?
posted by Kathy Kolb | 10:17 PM
2 Comments:
Great blog. Interesting to see information on epson printer ink from that perspective. I have a blog on a similar subject here epson printer ink
Whatever it is,* you can get it heredigital camera store
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