Turn off the projector
I’m sure some of you are too young to remember this. Back in the seventies we used to take photos with real cameras. The kind with film that had to be developed at a special store. One-hour photo developing didn’t become a thing until years later.
To show your photos to a group, you had to convert those photos to slides. Slides are little pieces of 1.5 x 1.5 inch card paper with the developed film sandwiched between.
To show these slides you needed a slide projector. You would put 100 of these slides into a round carousel and lock it into place onto the projector. As the carousel would rotate, one slide at a time, each slide would be dropped down in front of a light which would project the image onto a wall or a projector screen. They made a distinctive sound that no one who has ever sat through someone else’s vacation photos could ever forget.
Which brings me to our topic today, my beautiful reader.
When you visited a friend or relative, they would often, or invariably as it seemed, ask you if you wanted to see their slides from their latest vacation. And by ask I mean they would just set the machine up and you knew you were in for a night of mirth and merriment. To show you their slides you had to endure the stories of each picture. They told you of each frame’s location, the reason for the photo, what they were doing at the time (which was often standing in front of something) and other very interesting details. Remember, this is before cable offered you 386 channels of nothing to watch, and your phone was a 14 pound unit attached to the kitchen wall.
Each slide is a snapshot of an event, a circumstance, an interesting locale (or perhaps not) or just someone standing still and smiling.
The point is, each slide as it clicked that memorable click, was a moment in time for someone. A glimpse into a circumstance that was meaningful for that person alone.
Click. Bright lights on the screen. A story.
Click. A description.
Click. A location.
Click.
Click.
Your entire life has been a series of episodes caught in the film of your mind. Each moment. A vignette. To others, the moment is obscure enough that explanation is required. Many of the slides in your mind are meaningless to anyone else but you. Some slides define your life. They have forever changed the lens through which you see the world. They have permanently altered the way you deal with others, or yourself. They have molded your self-talk. But without the backstory, no one else could possibly understand what that image on the slide represents for you.
It could have been the way your dad talked to you when you didn’t make little league. It could have been how the kids at school made fun of your most recent haircut.
Remember the movie, “Rocky”? Rocky told Adrienne that his dad had told him that he wasn’t born with much of a brain and so he must use his body. This relegated him to fighting in underground fight clubs and working as a thumb breaker for the mob. Adrienne, however, was informed by her mother that since she didn’t have much of a body, she better make use of her brain. Slides.
What events in your life have created slides you play back to yourself to define your worth?
What events have shaped you in such a way you now view the world through a different lens?
What circumstances, should anyone care to look, need to be explained so they will make sense to those who need to understand why you do the things you do?
Click, click, click.
What event today are you recording in the carousel of your mind, waiting to be viewed later under the glaring lights onto a white screen?
Smash the f%cking carousel. Throw it against the wall.
These images aren’t who you are anymore. They don’t define you. You aren’t the same person today that you were when that photo was taken. Hell, you aren’t the same person as just yesterday.
You have a choice each and every day to start new. To walk away from your past. To redefine who you are and how you interact with the world. You can be better. Each day. A little better.
You know what? Your dad was judging himself when he criticized you not making the team. Your classmates weren’t making fun of your haircut, they were unaware that your mom the hairdo for you. Kids mock everything around them. Screw them.
Smash the projector. No one wants to hear the tales of your slides, the stories of the images you think define you. You don’t owe anyone an explanation of who you are. Self-defense is unnecessary.
What happened yesterday? Who gives a shit. Live today. And tomorrow, live tomorrow. Do you, the best you. And tomorrow? Be a better you. Not for anyone else. For you, and only you.
You can do it, if only you smash the projector.
Joe “Weeg” Weigant is an empowerment coach who specializes in energy work (Reiki, Acupressure, Tuning Forks, Massage, Sound/Vibration Therapy) to release trauma, reset the autonomic nervous system, and balance the energy systems of the body to achieve lasting peace. He utilizes muscle testing to determine needs for herbal remedies by Nature’s Sunshine and Pure Herbs Ltd. Weeg teaches Karate and Tai Chi, certification in Reiki, as well as seminars and workshops in metaphysical and spiritual matters. Weeg is available for sessions at Tri State Holistic Wellness by appointment only.
Contact by text 812.568.5356, or Facebook Messenger to set an appointment.