The other evening, we attended a concert at the local high school. The concert was part of an exchange program with a group of young students from China who were here in Needham, MA to spend time with students in our schools and in our homes. Because my son wasn’t in the concert and we weren’t a host family, we didn’t bring any cameras. The concert was magnificent. The students had worked extremely long and hard to perform a 90 minute program, including singing, playing musical instruments and dance.
What I did notice, during the concert, were all the cameras that were taking pictures and videos, all trying to find the right shots throughout the performances. There were so many hands -raised, holding up some kind of device to capture these special moments.
I was wondering, and maybe because I didn’t have a camera in-hand, do we miss something when looking through the eyes of a camera? Or trying to watch a performance or exhibition or event when we’re trying to focus on what’s in front of us but at the same time trying to hold the camera steady and on our “target” in the viewfinder?
Can the feeling and excitement in a room be captured in our pictures or videos? Or does our lens create a tunnel view where we don’t see the bigger picture of what we are watching? As we work each day, it is important to have focus and tunnel vision to get things done. But our companies and even if we have our own business, need to place importance on of the bigger picture; it is vital to the survival of our business.
So there is a place for our tunnel view of work and life but it is essential to remember to widen the view of the lens to not miss out on the panorama that life presents to us each and every day.
And even though I don’t have any pictures or videos of the children from China performing, my memories are vivid; not just of what I saw with my eyes or heard with my ears, but of the warmth I felt in the auditorium that emanated from the Needham families and the special visitors from far away.