Stealing Souls

My tongue was black the other night (short story involving licorice ice cream). I had to show my husband on the video chat because it's rare to have a black tongue and Hannah's explanation to him was,

"She's been eating the souls of innocent children."

My warping of our children is a wonderful and terrifying thing, but it did get me thinking about stealing souls. Well, it was her statement and the tourists taking pictures of my kids swimming at the glacier. I wouldn't think that much about it, except I allow my girls to wear bikinis and I don't want to see those showing up on Facebook.

So, I wanted them to start screaming in agony, "You've stolen my soul," when each tourist stopped with a smartphone. And I kind of believe people have. There is something about pictures that steals a bit of our essence and makes it hard to dwell in that unselfconscious place where ecstasy and joy can exist.

There is also a part of me that wonders if we will raise the most narcissistic generation ever because of the photo glut. It's just too easy to take a million pictures all starring those we love.  We encourage the illusion, "I am the center of the universe."

I can't help but think of my lemon lady in Tanzania. I always bought lemons and hot peppers from her because she didn't cheat me and I was strangely fascinated by her elongated ear lobes. On my last day, she tried to talk me into marrying her son and I asked if I could take her picture. I declined on the marriage offer, but I did take a picture and sent a copy to her through a friend.

My friend said the lemon lady was astounded. She had never before seen an image of herself. No mirrors nor photos existed in her village. It's such a wild thought and I would lean heavily towards adopting this lifestyle just for the bathroom wait time to shorten in our house.

Imagine if the only image you had of yourself was what was reflected in others. Imagine your vision always focused on seeing others and the world around you. I think it would make it easier to see yourself not as the center of the universe, but a string in a huge interconnected web.

Maybe that's what it means to have a soul. It is an awareness of our selves primarily through our relationships with others. It is a sense of our beautiful uniqueness held in tension with our infinitesimal existence and reliance on others and God.  Our soul is what binds our individuality with the eternal.

I must confess that Lutherans aren't real strong on the whole "soul" theology anyway so I can make up whatever I want.  I'm also kind of regretting not taking a picture of my black tongue.