Look Beyond The Surface: Introduction

How many people do we walk past each day? How often do we look into each other's faces? Each and every person we cross paths with, whether we speak to them or not, has a story; they have a life beyond those 2 seconds of our acknowledgment or avoidance. They have inherent worth because they were made in the image of the God who created all things. They matter because they simply exist, because they are here. Yet how often do we take each other into consideration in a way that reflects this truth?

C.S. Lewis says in his book The Great Divorce that "there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, art, civilizations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption."

I enjoy people. I love learning about other's lives; their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their desires. There is a distinct beauty in both our differences and similarities as individuals. And for as long as I can remember, I have wanted to take that interest and use it for good beyond my own edification. In the midst of the turmoil that we've been going through in the United States, this desire has come back into focus for me. It has spurred me to try to create something that might aid in building bridges between different kinds of people.

This blog is going to be a process. I want it to be something that changes and grows. For now, the idea is to talk to many different kinds of people and publish those conversations (with their permission of course), along with a photograph of either the individual or something that they are interested in. I will start with people who I am already acquainted with and then branch out as or if interest grows.

I am by no means an expert in anything. I am neither a journalist nor a photographer. I dabble in writing and painting but do not claim to be all that good at either. My desire is to fade into the background and for the interviewee to come front and center. It is highlighting their value that I am after. Like rubbing the sleep out of one's eyes, clearing our vision and seeing the other's face that is before us as somehow brighter. And maybe we connect to something that is intangible, yet more important than we ever realized: an unseen dignity. There is so much more to each of us than a passing glance could ever encompass.