By Jim Nichols

He unrolled a long section of white paper with heights marked off on it with a black felt pen. The marks were in feet and inches. After taping it in the correct position on the back of a bedroom door, he used snapshots of previous years to add dates such as “1-1-54” and “1-1-55” on smaller pieces of paper and stuck them onto specific positions on the giant paper ruler already mounted. The snapshots were of my sisters and me one by one with a different photo for every January 1. This was my father’s method of recording photographically not only how each of us appeared, but also how our height had changed in twelve months. It was his version of having a child stand at a door jam and marking height with a pencil on the woodwork.

As the years accumulated, so did the photo stack. Each showed us for that year and what our heights were for the preceding years. Secondarily, also shown frequently was a favorite Christmas gift that we had just received a few days earlier; several different dolls and balls appear.

A more modern version of this (without the measurement aspect) is what seems to be the obligatory internet photos with chronicles of “first day of second grade” or some other year. It is a treasured manner of remembering the joy of a particular time.

Although we may not have appreciated it then, it is a way of supporting family bonding. We accompany this by the official “school pictures” taken by a professional photographer. For a given price, you not only get a set of 5 x 7s, but also twenty-five 2 x 2s for sharing with classmates or mailing to a grandparent. This professional photographer frequently had some goofy (and unfunny) ways to try to get you to smile.

I suspect history books will identify the current years as the “years of the selfie.” We do not need someone to take our picture now. Photography is so simple that we feel everything, and everybody deserves a picture taken, especially ourselves. Can you imagine going back only twenty-five years and taking a picture of yourself? And then taking another picture of yourself? And another? 

It is not a stretch to suggest that we live in an age that is fascinated by identity. This involves not only personal identity, but gender identity, racial identity, and national identity. When we root for a favorite team, we are joining a group that has a common cause and, in fact, an identity; we wear clothing supporting that identity and adopt behavior patterns to match. 

This is not necessarily negative, but one might wonder if human individual identity is overrated.

In our family currently, we have two young new members. As those babies are developing, their identities are being shaped by the loving interaction with others. Another author has noted that they are “intensely social little people.” On their journey to self-discovery, they depend on the care and protection of the company of others. In other words, they are already part of a community. 

Here is a strange thought. How many people does it take to compose a community? Two people could be exclusive, but when a third is added, a new level of sharing and responsibility occurs.

Scripture states that humans are made in the “image of God.” Unfortunately, for me this is not clearly explained. There are several possibilities that make sense, but, certainly, we are led to another mystery and that is the Trinity. Although we struggle to understand it, we sense that the image of God is a relational one; there is a God who is Father, and also Son, and Holy Spirit. Is that a holy community?

Living in a modern world as the age of selfies challenges us to deal with the importance of our communities. In those school pictures taken, there were other friends waiting just off camera. Although those January 1 photos my dad took included only me, he organized, implemented, and archived the whole scene.

We are really not in this alone. Perhaps our selfies miss that critical point.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain