The BIG Picture

So how often do we fail to see the big picture?  You could write a book on almost anything and I can assure you, it would contain information that I don’t know.  When it comes to my ability to see the big picture, I don’t always get it.

By my own admission, when it comes to technology, I’m light years behind my ten-year-old grandson. He is two and a half hours away. I wish he was closer because he could teach me a lot. In fact, yesterday I reached out to a friend who lives about the same distance away.  She intuitively knew I’d probably need help, so when she suggested I add a background picture to my Facebook page, she said she’d be happy to assist.

As you know, I’m not the sharpest Crayola in the box.  In fact, you could pick any category and I wouldn’t know enough to get honorable mention. Before you caution me not to make self-denigrating comments, please hear me say: “I’m not throwing stones at myself”. I am simply making a statement of fact.  As a rule of thumb, most of us fall into the category of average.  Consequently, the folks who are above average are generally the ones to get honorable mention.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with falling somewhere in line other than the front when it comes to brilliance. Some folks tend to be “too smart for their own good”.  We’ve probably all known people like that. They always surface to the top in every conversation as having all the answers.  

When I find myself stuck in the company of someone who seemingly knows everything, the first thing I look for is the door and subsequently find a way to exit stage right.   I always think of something Winston Churchill reportedly told a man who had dogged his steps at a dinner party.  With the intensity of a puppy chewing on a bone, the man had attempted to come across with all the answers.  As the man continued to interject his thoughts and dominate the conversation, Churchill turned and said something along the lines of: “Together you and I know everything. In fact, single-handedly you know everything, except the fact that you are a complete bore. I know that. So, together we know everything”.

 The complicated stuff of life isn’t all that complicated if you know what you’re doing.  The problem is, most of the time I don’t. Apparently, the same is true for others as well. To pretend to know something that I don’t, always comes back to bite me, so I’ve mostly learned to “tell it like it is” and own the fact that I’m a novice when it comes to most things.

My granddaddy would have said of someone exaggerating a sense of self-worth, “They are too big for their britches”.  Generally, that expression has some connotation to the reality that they don’t know as much as they think they do.  

My problem is most of the time, I don’t have a level of awareness to even know what I’m missing.  Some would say, “I walk around in a fog.”  Yesterday, I decided to update my profile picture on Facebook. For about a year or longer, I’ve had a black and white profile picture displayed on my Facebook page. I decided to post a picture the General had made of me with her iPhone at the Alamo Café in San Antonio.  I made one of her and she made one of me.  I decided to use the picture as a profile picture because it is current and it reminded me of a really “feel good” experience of being invited to a rehearsal dinner of a wedding party.  Although I was officiating at the wedding the next day, I was in the company of strangers and they all went out of their way to make us feel welcomed and included.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

So, when a friend reached out and suggested I post a background picture on my Facebook page, I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Was she suggesting I not use the profile picture I had just updated?  In reading her text, it seemed like she was talking about something other than my profile picture.  I was virtually clueless.  

Several folks had commented immediately on the new profile picture.  Some thought it was a good picture, while others noticed that the picture didn’t include a smile.  I was flattered with the indication that a smile was generally associate with my modus operandi. Without it, I didn’t look the same. 

The friend suggesting a background picture on my Facebook page had even selected one for me.  It was a picture that I previously had used in a posting. The picture was from my childhood. It was of my brothers and me at the sandhills in Monahans.

So, the background picture didn’t replace the profile picture.  It simply complimented it.  So, I’ve had a Facebook page for probably at least a decade. Yesterday, I learned that you could post a background picture in addition to a profile picture.  Why didn’t I know that?  If I didn’t know that, I suspected others didn’t know that either. I obviously don’t always see the big picture.

Consequently, not wanting to take a chance that I was wrong, I pulled up my brother’s Facebook page. After all, he lives in Oklahoma. I figured, the chances were good that his profile picture would have a totally black background the way mine had until yesterday. Larry’s wife has often said of him that he walks around in a fog the same way I do.  Larry is always resistive to that comparison. He thinks it is a fair assessment of me, but he is resistive of the notion that we share a family resemblance in that regard.

I was speechless. Even my brother from a third world country had a picture associated to his Facebook page. In a frantic attempt to find someone else with just a profile picture, I looked at other Facebook pages of friends.  Everyone had both a profile picture and a background picture. 

I obviously, don’t always see the big picture. So, how many times have I seen the picture now posted on my Facebook page over the course of my lifetime?  I would say many, but yesterday some things came to mind that I’d never seen or at least noticed. Someone suggested that I had to be the kid on the right.  I looked at the picture and concurred. I had a smile as big as Texas.  After all, isn’t that my signature series? Besides that, Ronnie seldom smiled. That had to be me.

My friend who had picked the picture out for posting, saw that both of my brothers were wearing boots. I was the only one that was barefooted?  Honestly, I’d never noticed that before.  Who in their right mind goes to the sandhills and doesn’t take off their shoes? Perhaps that is the reason I was smiling. They didn’t fully experience the sandhills the way I did.  Perhaps, they didn’t see the big picture either.

All My Best!

Don