Shortcuts

Yesterday I had the distinct privilege of taking my soon-to-be-senior-in-high-school to his senior pictures. While I was expecting this grand experience, it was actually quite simple. A couple of photographers and a couple of college-age girls doing a summer job. Funny how when we get the results of those shots they are going to look so professional and classy. Yet, here they sat in this classroom at the high school with all their fancy equipment and a bunch of chairs.

That actually, isn't the point of my blog this morning. As I sat and watched the young girl-with-a-summer-job chick get my dear Oldest ready for his pictures I noticed that for the classy, formal, yearbook picture he got to put on a lovely sleeveless dress shirt. Perhaps you've had this experience before. No sleeves on that bad boy, just the button up collar and she added a bow tie. As he stood waiting on the finishing touches of a suit jacket, I marveled at how this young man with his bulging biceps and ripped off sleeves on a tuxedo dress shirt looked like he jumped out of a comic book. Incredible Hulk anyone?

On goes the suit jacket and he takes the most fabulous pictures. The boy is so handsome. Side note: I DID NOT use this opportunity as one of my free passes to be emotional since my senior is a senior kind of moment. I kept it together very well. I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of the other students and the photographers, naturally. As composed as I was, it was an "awwww" kind of moment. Especially the cap and gown picture. Wow, there's my baby with a cap and gown on. That was pretty huge.

Enough digressing...I realized that this fancy, tuxedo shot is much like a lot of things in our life. We take shortcuts of torn off sleeves to our situations. Who needs the whole deal? Who needs to take the time to actually do things completely? All we think we need is the end result...the fabulous tuxedo shot. Who would look at that picture and know that there's really only 1/2 a shirt there? What is it about human nature that makes us constantly drive towards quicker and easier? Shortcuts. We can find them in almost every situation. The route we drive to work; the dinner we cook (or don't cook) after work when the kids are hungry; the way we choose a checkout line at the grocery store. You get my drift. Shortcuts. Always looking for a better, easier, quicker way.

Is there really a difference if there had been sleeves under that shirt. Practically speaking, no. But symbolically speaking, yes. What if we avoid the shortcuts and go for quality over instantly? What if we actually took our time at our daily tasks and made a conscious effort to be real and authentic. Well, then I think all of our lives would be drastically different. Let's live real, folks.