These frames sat in my living room for nearly a month and a half like this. I grew to like them being there.
(Though I'm not sure my roommates did...)
(Though I'm not sure my roommates did...)
There was nothing exceptional about their assembly. They weren’t really framing anything; they were just there, existing together.
My dad and my sister and I built these frames over Christmas from wood that was gathered (and by ‘gathered’, I of course mean ‘tore off using human might and crow bars’) from my grandfather’s first home.
To me, the frames were the work.
They left me questioning the frame.
What is it? Why do we frame things? And why do we frame the things that we frame?
Because we think they’re valuable or beautiful. Because whatever exists in the frame is usually something of worth, something we want to be noticed, recognized, distinguished.
Okay.
But what about the frame? What is its worth? Does it even have one?
I think that it does.
......................
The last few weeks have been a bit mad.
I am a student. It is midterm season and there are papers to write and too many bookmarked pages that need my revisiting. And it really isn't just the quantity of work - it's the content.
Typically my day is spent thinking of genocide; civil war; all of these gross human rights abuses present in the world - children becoming soldiers; rape used a weapon of war; torture.
How do we work towards resolving all of this? How do we reconcile? Is it possible?
How do we repair the social fabric of a nation when 200,000 people have been killed or have gone missing? What about 300,000? Or 800,000? Or 3 million? Or what about just a few hundred - or a handful? Just one? What about decades of sour resentment and hatred? Generations who only know conflict?
What about other injustices? And less visible injustice? How do we actually deliver justice? And what the hell is justice, anyway? Does it penalize? Or does it restore? Can it be both? Do both?
How do we do this work? How do we do good here?
How do I find a way to contribute to whatever that good may be?
It can look so awful.
.........................
I promise, I’m getting back to the frame…
A few weeks ago with questions of similar nature on my mind, I was somewhere between one task and another – and a good friend stopped me.
With the softest of intention, she spoke.
I had already hollered, “have a great week,” and was two steps gone when her voice stilled me.
“Krystal.”
“Yes.”
“... You job ... is to look for beauty.”
I’ve revisited these words again and again in the last few weeks.
My job is to look for beauty.
My job is to look for beauty.
My job is to look for beauty.
Not everything can be resolved.
And not everything has an answer.
At the end of the day, my job isn't to solve all of those big questions.
My job,
and your job,
is to look for beauty.
And that is the value of the frame.
There is devastation and hurt and hunger and hatred everywhere.
But, my God, there is beauty.
And we have to look for it!
We have to draw attention to it!
We have to do everything we can to frame it, to showcase it, to share it!
It’s not absent from all those hard and tattered places. No, it’s stuffed in every crack, it's seeping out of the broken.
Look for it.
Look for it.
While you wrestle with the big whys of the world,
posture yourself to frame the good, the hopeful, the beautiful.
Your act of awareness and recognition
will be an offering of the beautiful in itself.
My dad and my sister and I built these frames over Christmas from wood that was gathered (and by ‘gathered’, I of course mean ‘tore off using human might and crow bars’) from my grandfather’s first home.
To me, the frames were the work.
They left me questioning the frame.
What is it? Why do we frame things? And why do we frame the things that we frame?
Because we think they’re valuable or beautiful. Because whatever exists in the frame is usually something of worth, something we want to be noticed, recognized, distinguished.
Okay.
But what about the frame? What is its worth? Does it even have one?
I think that it does.
......................
The last few weeks have been a bit mad.
I am a student. It is midterm season and there are papers to write and too many bookmarked pages that need my revisiting. And it really isn't just the quantity of work - it's the content.
Typically my day is spent thinking of genocide; civil war; all of these gross human rights abuses present in the world - children becoming soldiers; rape used a weapon of war; torture.
How do we work towards resolving all of this? How do we reconcile? Is it possible?
How do we repair the social fabric of a nation when 200,000 people have been killed or have gone missing? What about 300,000? Or 800,000? Or 3 million? Or what about just a few hundred - or a handful? Just one? What about decades of sour resentment and hatred? Generations who only know conflict?
What about other injustices? And less visible injustice? How do we actually deliver justice? And what the hell is justice, anyway? Does it penalize? Or does it restore? Can it be both? Do both?
How do we do this work? How do we do good here?
How do I find a way to contribute to whatever that good may be?
It can look so awful.
.........................
I promise, I’m getting back to the frame…
A few weeks ago with questions of similar nature on my mind, I was somewhere between one task and another – and a good friend stopped me.
With the softest of intention, she spoke.
I had already hollered, “have a great week,” and was two steps gone when her voice stilled me.
“Krystal.”
“Yes.”
“... You job ... is to look for beauty.”
I’ve revisited these words again and again in the last few weeks.
My job is to look for beauty.
My job is to look for beauty.
My job is to look for beauty.
Not everything can be resolved.
And not everything has an answer.
At the end of the day, my job isn't to solve all of those big questions.
My job,
and your job,
is to look for beauty.
And that is the value of the frame.
There is devastation and hurt and hunger and hatred everywhere.
But, my God, there is beauty.
And we have to look for it!
We have to draw attention to it!
We have to do everything we can to frame it, to showcase it, to share it!
It’s not absent from all those hard and tattered places. No, it’s stuffed in every crack, it's seeping out of the broken.
Look for it.
Look for it.
While you wrestle with the big whys of the world,
posture yourself to frame the good, the hopeful, the beautiful.
Your act of awareness and recognition
will be an offering of the beautiful in itself.