Metaphor: Trees and Forest and Focus

I love the way photography offers metaphors for living. Here's one of them.

In photography, there are no trees. There is no forest. There is only depth of field.

(Definition: "depth of field" = how much of a photograph is in focus. Could be a lot, could be a little.)

So we need to focus. Not too near, not to far.

That's what I'm trying to do these days. Long-term thinking and planning, which is (permissively) imperative... while also getting today's highest priorities accomplished.

This tension can be difficult at the best of times. We have to make choices. We can't do it all, we can't focus on everything at once, near and far.

Long-term thinking tends to move us away from immediate priorities, as we ponder things like... what are my two biggest 5-year objectives and how do I get there? How will we fund our children's education? When will we retire? When will we spend several weeks in western China? How will I care for my parents over the next decade? You know, things which are real but don't relate to "today."

vs...

Is a bill due tomorrow (or yesterday), how can I be prepared for this afternoon's meeting, what surprise was just sprung on me, now's no time to get sick, do we need more milk? I need to exercise, I need enough sleep, and of course, "Ooh, shiny."

Most of our lives we are focused on immediate things, and occasionally if we happen to undertake such a discipline, we might also focus on longer-term planning, goals, objectives, and strategies.

Sometimes when meeting the insane demands of the current moment, we need lots of bokeh (bokeh : wikipedia). We regularly need to "throw" the longterm things (as beautiful as they might be) out of focus, off our radar, so we can efficiently accomplish the most important responsibilities of today and this week.

But if we continue to live this way, focusing only on the present (even if we get good at it, and some people are, damn them :) we may end up being controlled by circumstances rather than our dreams and goals.

On the other hand, if we focus only on the horizon's dreams and goals, we may live very rocky lives in the here and now, finding limited success at meeting today's responsibilities and tomorrow's obligations.

In photography, the amount of focus (depth of field) a photographer chooses is influenced by at least two things:

1. Subject (what the photographer is recording and what the image is about, on its own terms)
2. Vision (what the photographer sees / interprets, and would like to communicate about the subject)

In life, the amount of focus (depth of field) a person chooses is influenced by at least two things:

1. The needs of today (trees)
   
2. The dreams of tomorrow (forest)

And like Solomon in Ecclesiastes, I'm thinking there's a season for everything. There's a time when it's good to see today's trees. There's a time when it's good to see the long-term forecast, tomorrow's forest, the long, bird's eye view of all those tiny little trees from a wonderfully high altitude.

And daily life needs both. Sacrifice everything one for just the other, and we're in trouble. Maintaining both is hard, but it can be done.

That's all for today. :-)