Only one life to live: So get out there and live it
Confusion Says
Jashong King, Daily Photo Editor
- Page 1 of 1
|
You only have one life.
Read it again.
I want to stress this because I have come to the understanding that so many of us do not live in the real world. We live in these imaginary worlds of our own creation that we have gleaned from media, literature or even the stories of others.
I'll give you an example.
How many of you have seen Ground Zero? Now tell me this, how many of you have REALLY been to Ground Zero?
I remember riding on the subway trains with my friend David four days before Sept. 11 of this year. Across from us was a sign reminding us of our final destination, the World Trade Center. I thought about how the sign must have remained unchanged since the previous year, and how many years before commuters had sat where I sat, looking at a sign of a place no longer there.
The subway car abruptly stopped. As we got out, I kept thinking how we were going to have to walk several more miles. David exited the subway first, and as he walked up the stairs onto the street, he said, "Well, I guess we're not going to get any closer than this."
I remember halting in my tracks, at the base of the stairs. I was still underground, standing under dim fluorescent lights at the base of the subway exit, staring out into a perfectly blue sky.
For some odd reason I felt compelled to stand there, unsure whether I wanted to see Ground Zero or not. The trip had ceased to be a visit. It was now a pilgrimage.
I gathered my strength and walked up the stairs. As I turned my head to the left, I saw a wall with T-shirts, letters and flags put in remembrance.
I turned to the right.
It's so big. An entire city block, clear-cut like a rain forest.
Across from me was the largest American flag I've ever seen in my life, draped in the middle of a 30-story building still dwarfed by the massive hole extending all the way across my peripheral vision.
There's so much that is lost in the telling of this story, through visuals or words. You don't see the actual site, stretching across your vision. You don't hear the planes flying overhead. You don't smell the hot dog vendors selling hot dogs across the street.
For people who see the photos in the newspaper the next day, they'll say,"It's sad," maybe worry about their family for a second, then forget about it. The newspaper is one step removed from reality. A rationale may well be, "It's not real, it happened to somebody else, and it'll never happen to me."
As a photojournalist, it's my job to go where other people can't, be it wars, disasters, places of joy or sadness. I have to go there and capture what I see and bring it back for you to see as well.
Words can describe, photos can show, we can kind of take you there, but the fundamental difference is you were not there.
And the fact that I can not truly communicate reality makes me feel like I'm doing a disservice to the lives of the people who are living joy and tragedy for real.
I almost think that as a member of the media, even though I'm bringing you the world, I'm doing a disservice to you by not allowing you to see the world new for the first time.
So my point and solution is simply this. Go out, and see it all for yourself.
Don't just take my word for it when I tell you about Ground Zero.
Go see, go feel, go experience.
Don't let what you have watched on television or read in a book or saw in a newspaper dictate what you think you have experienced because you have not actually experienced any of it.
Don't be afraid to go to the very edge of life. Take some risks. Take them with the understanding that frequently you will fail, and sometimes you won't, and the times they work, it's a lesson worth your patience.
There's only one purpose in life, and that's to live. That's all it really is. That's all any of your life really is. You only have one life.
Now live it.
JaShong King is the
Spartan Daily Photo Editor.
'Confusion Says' appears Fridays.
