Thursday, May 31, 2007

Images..

This post is dedicated to special friends... one whom I, probably, gave a sleepless night and another who, I pray to God, never gets another sleepless night in this life.

This post is about images. Few posts ago a friend commented that one of the photos which I had taken and posted on the blog was really amazing.
This followed a discussion with my friend (who got the sleepless night, I think) about how sometimes what is said to you can bring up powerful images in your head.

I started thinking and I realised that while a picture speaks a thousand word, a mental picture is much more powerful. While paintings, photographs and other visual representations of the world have the power to move us a mental image has the power to shake us.

A mental image can haunt us like no other photograph or painting. Often mental images are associated with so many powerful emotions (both good and bad) that they end up sticking with us for life. This is specially difficult for people who can visualise very easily. When they are hearing things about other peoples lives they can draw up mental images as the conversation unfolds.

These images have a power to give us peace as well. Imagine the mental image that comes into your mind when you hear your sweethearts voice coming through a telephone. When that voice is happy you imagine their smiling face. As you imagine that smiling face, you start to smile.
When that voice has pain, you imagine them in pain and you start to feel sad.

Imagine the mental images within a true love story. Imagine the mental images within a true war story. Can you feel your heart going crazy and the smell of smoke in the air?

The power of mental images of course depends on your imagination (as stated before). If you are highly imaginative then you will create powerful mental images. This ability can be an asset as well as a curse.


A few days ago, I was left with such a powerful mental image created out of a phrase... a powerful yet confusing mental image. The image had a lot of pain (Anonymous.. here you go again!) thus it was powerful. But I was confused because the pain was so great that even I couldn't imagine the associated emotions of the person. I couldn't complete the picture. My brain couldn't process how a person would feel under that kind of pain.

That is why I wrote this post. As a tribute to the person who gave me the image and to the person who originally gave that person the image. Confused? Good.

In the end I just knew one thing... It is easier to forget that you have stopped.. than to start moving again.

This is what came to my mind and I posted in then and there. I am repeating it here. I hope people understand what it means. To keep moving is the only way out of the maze of pain in my personal experience.

1 comment:

Tuhina Adit Maark said...

We see many images be they mental ones or the photographic kind but everything doesn't affect us. Obviously those we remember and are there to stay are the ones make a dent on our hearts . When you are able to draw a picture which says more than that was said it becomes difficult to let it go. Sometimes the hold of what was witnessed in a second is so strong that it takes a while to do what you've suggested... to start moving on