Living Unframed

This is Day 2 of 30 of the series “The Poetry of [Seemingly] Ordinary Things”

When I feel boxed in, I think of this door with three rows of windows side by side. From what I've seen, it's called a "window grille." 

I can't help but see many things here:

A social media profile with images and videos side-by-side.

A wall of photographs in square frames.

A wall calendar with many entries in little squares.

Even a yearbook with square student photos lined up side by side.

These things are different, but they have this in common:

As much as they reveal, they only say so much:

A full social media feed can tell a lot about life, but for many things, a 10-minute video would only scratch the surface.

A grid of photos (on your phone or in real life) are just the moments someone decided to capture.

A full calendar reveals much about life, but it doesn't tell you everything.

An old yearbook photo might lead to a thousand words, but still, leave out 10,000 other words about everything that happened your senior year.

I see these "boxes" everywhere.

Even when sending a text, that narrow horizontal window where you type sometimes makes me feel like what I need to say must take up as little space as possible.

I'm not saying texts must be 100 words or even a sentence. 

I'm not suggesting gridless windows and doors.

Frames and brevity are useful.

We often need to "edit the plate."

Save time, and value others' time,

and be expedient when necessary.

But in our fast-paced world, windows keep closing faster and faster.

So I'm learning to break out of some boxes:

I'm fine if people keep scrolling and leave because I didn't get to the point fast enough ––

There are billions of other posts out there that will grab their attention better than I can.

I'll always respect others' time. And also, I can't control all those variables.

I can't be put in a box of 60 seconds for everything, just like I can't be put in a box about what "30s" should look like. And I want the same for my 40s, 50s, and so on.

Windows, frames, boxes, squares, and rectangles may have their place, and also, when you feel stuck, I hope you find ways to discover how: there's more out there.

Putting something in a frame might just always have its place in our world, and, so will finding ways to live unframed.

-Morgan Harper Nichols