on fireworks and how they’re viewed

There is something beautifully metaphorical about fireworks.
I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the local Fourth of July fireworks with some friends, but most of my family couldn’t, so I decided to take a video of them for my sibling. There was one thing I noticed specifically in the process – the light show always, always looked better when watched with the naked eye, versus through the camera I filmed it with. It was more colorful, louder, and besides, you can’t very well feel fireworks shaking your very soul through a phone, can you? [at least, not yet?]
And that fact, that small fact, got me thinking. Of course.
Different versions of the same thought ran through my head Saturday night – /You can’t live solely behind the camera. Life isn’t lived to the fullest if you stay behind the scenes./
/You will never make a difference if you’re afraid of change./
Is that a newsflash, even a little bit? That we can’t change the world if we’re afraid to change ourselves: this is something that should be obvious by now. Small amounts of doubt is healthy.
Fear cripples and rots you, until there’s nothing left of you but an eroded shell. It leaves you hollowed out and choking on your own breath.
A firework may last only a moment, but the way it imprints the sky with its aftersmoke and leaves you gasping for more is something to remember.
Live a little. Make an imprint on someone’s day, without the crippling fear that they won’t like you or accept you. Be the genuine firework, not a recorded replica.

[yes, I did just vaguely tie all of that into each other. somehow. that was fun.]