A picture is worth a thousand words. But today, one can be taken at the swipe or tap of a finger then imprinted forever on the internet.

It tells the story of an instance, and provokes no thought whatsoever. It is a plain statement of “this is,” rather than “this could be”; it doesn’t ask “what if.”

But in this picture, there are only three people: the oldest woman called “the mom,” the younger one called “the older sister,” the smallest one called “the younger brother.”

It asks “what happened to the dad.” 

But suggests: “behind the camera.” But in that living moment, dad is not behind the camera, nor in the proximity of 500ft, in fact, he is somewhere on the other side of our perceptible world.  

But what if, “the mom” is not “the mom “ but in fact “the older sister”? What if “the younger brother” was “the mom”?

Now that’s a family tree growing from the leaves to its roots. What if there is no “the mom” or “the older sister” or “the younger brother,” and just three strangers captured in a picture frame in between three other frames of three different families. 

“This could be” the intersection of three different worlds. But a picture says “this is.”