Life through Photographs: The Significance of the Insignificant

During the cool, damp night that ended the day’s scorching reign over all of us, my three siblings and I were ready to relax and enjoy the rare time when the temperature dipped under eighty degrees for a few hours. We savor these moments where all of us siblings can come together and do not have to worry about responsibilities or rivalries because they come only a few times a year. Although hardly anything is accomplished, moments like this define who we are. The apparently insignificant occurrences in our lives combine to create the people we become. The evidence for this assertion is unmistakable in photographs like this. Each small trait of the picture can be traced to multiple attributes of a person or relationship.

Since we were children growing up in the same house in Muncie and sharing rooms with each other, we have formed our relationships through these small, seemingly insignificant interactions. We all lived together for only a few years because of a hefty age difference. While I am eighteen years old, my sister is thirteen years older than me, with my two brothers fitting in between that gap. During the time we shared in Mom and Dad’s house, we formed permanent connections with each other that can be seen today. I can be rather certain in saying that none of us thought we were forging lifelong relationships while we gingerly dipped a sleeping brother’s hand into warm water or vengefully tore an arm off a stuffed monkey. But as the house has emptied and its old companions moved away, we realized the significance of each minute interaction. We can never understand what life is doing; we can only understand what life has done.

The picture showcases my siblings and me, stalled in time, a perfect way to examine what has happened. The three siblings clumped on the right show the normal, expected side of family togetherness while exhibiting small cues of discord that are undoubtedly more significant than the big picture. The lone brother on the left demonstrates the opposite, looking as if he has concerns in another world more important than any family photo. However, the small, resisted twitches in his distracted countenance and context of the situation show his closeness with his earthly family.

The lone brother’s name is Mark; he is the second youngest and the hairiest. He is the most different of the children, which means his quirky behaviors and inhumanly hairy chest are the norm and his normal actions are rarities that relate him to his siblings. He is focused on something else in the picture, while still cognizant that he is in a picture, as evidenced by his half-smile. Mark shows most of his interest towards a distant conversation while only participating minimally in his immediate surroundings. This defines Mark as a person; no matter what is going on at the moment around him, if something more intriguing is occurring somewhere else, real or imaginary, he will take a mental vacation to that place. At the moment, Mark is not disinterested, he is simply multi-interested.

The other odd-one-out, separated by gender rather than eccentricity, is Ashley. Ashley is the oldest and most mature, to some extent from growing up taking care of rascally children running wild around her. In her ferocious smile her position of sibling supremacy is evident, paralleled by the sarcastic punch directed at my unbreakable midsection. If the picture panned lower, our pristine feet could be seen, washed invariably as in years past to protect the impeccable linoleum floors against wet, abrasive sand and house against the musty smell of salt water and dying crustaceans. This defense was also my sister’s doing, as she had developed a sense of joint responsibility for all of us younger siblings’ actions from past experience of our juvenile capriciousness. Not that we aren’t just as juvenile today, but remnants from insignificant occurrences many years ago still determine the decisions my sister makes today. For instance, with her upcoming wedding, rather than suggest a certain tie or passage to read, she puts to use the classic, “Would you like to do this for me, I will personally ruin your life if you don’t?” phrasing. This type of diplomatic demand is a prime example of how my sister has been influenced by swindling her younger siblings into doing her chores.

The true role model for me in the family was my oldest brother on the far right. We both grew up loving the beautiful game, known trivially as soccer in this country to some, and shared countless other interests as well. This familial closeness is apparent in Ryan’s lack of concern for his pose in the picture and focus on simply being close with his favorite brother. His open-mouthed smile, reminiscent of a cartoon character, emerges only when he has accomplished all of his crucial responsibilities. In his opinion, crucial defines most of his responsibilities. In the picture, Ryan is taking a break from taking himself too seriously.

The final sibling, yours truly, is in the cramped middle of the two oldest. Just as when I was a precious little baby, I received much of the attention of my oldest siblings. However, Mark, the condemned loser in the attention battles by a margin of two years, bitterly refuses to give any notice to my youthful exuberance. I am smiling while being physically assaulted by a tyrannical sister and annoyed by an aggressive brother. I have learned to live with these people, my family, through small, seemingly insignificant interactions.

Without the details from these interactions, our lives would have no context. It is not done on purpose, but the outcomes of every contact with someone or something forms pieces of whom we are. Pictures chronicle the small remnants of our actions so we can view them later. Without some way to record our memories, we could never fully understand each other and ourselves. Pictures like this give us the ability to examine the inconsequential actions that determine the people we become. I would not remember many of the small things that make my siblings who they are and define why they are so special without the description from photographs.