Mug Shots

I have a brand new coffee mug that was given to me as a gift yesterday while I was visiting in my native Philadelphia. Actually, I was on a business trip which ended early enough for me to have time to catch up with an old friend that worked nearby. More and more in my travels I have been trying to take time to see people that I don’t get to see very often. This can at times take me a bit out of the way, or maybe even delay my departure for home, but I find that every time I manage to make time for and with a friend that we are both better off for having made the effort.

Going back to the coffee mug, this was purchased from Starbucks. They have a series of mugs that they sell around the country that are adorned with words and images that are central to the identification of a particular city. My new mug has a Philadelphia theme. If you are familiar with Philadelphia, the images are those that you easily associate with the city. There is a picture of the Liberty Bell, a picture of City Hall which is taken from a ground level looking up at William Penn, a picture of the Philadelphia skyline taken from somewhere on the Schuylkill River, and finally, there is a picture of the “Love” statue which is a popular tourist attraction in the central part of the city. These are all great images that would have meaning to anyone that grew up in Philadelphia, and this is really a great gift to receive when you are like me an expatriate living far from home.

As anyone that reads this page might well suspect, the mug shots on my new coffee mug actually took me to a whole different place beyond just a view of the images of a city I love. Of course, it is also possible that the fact that I spent about four and a half hours driving across the state last night may have also impacted my thoughts and feelings, but I prefer to attribute my leap of association to the fact that I have just been thinking more deeply lately. We all tend to see in things what we choose to see and our perspectives are more related to who we are and how we are rather than what simply is.

Thinking of these mug shots I actually began to think of the other type of mug shots. I am speaking of those shots you see in every post office or what you see in the paper when someone is arrested. These are the shots that we all look at to try to learn what heinous crime a person has committed. We are attracted to these pictures because of a very human sense of curiosity that makes us look at pictures. In fact, we tend to look at almost every picture that is placed in front of us. The most extreme example of this for me is when someone brings their vacation pictures into the office and passes them around so that each person can sift through 20 or 30 pictures. “Here is one of me and Bob standing by the pool bar, “”This is the one of me parasailing right before I crashed,” “who is this guy?” We all look even though we don’t really care about the pictures, we don’t even know Bob, and frankly, I have yet to see 20 or 30 amateur photos that are very interesting. Still we look.

Since we all are so willing to look at photos anyway, I am proposing that we think about a different kind of mug shot. Imagine what your life would be like if you knew that you were being photographed all the time. These photos would be posted at regular intervals on the internet. They would be include photos from first thing in the morning before you shower, shave, mouse, or put on the control top hose. They would include shots of you during work, pictures of what is on our computer screen right now, and close ups of your email messages. They would also show you in the parking lot, in your car, and while you are driving. The pictures would follow you after work, chronicle the places you stop on the way home and include the faces of all of the people you meet. There would be shots at dinner, pictures from the coffee shop, or even the local bar where you are stopping to just get one on the way. They would chronicle the friends you stop to see, and even show pictures of each item you buy, rent, or consume throughout the day.

If we had to live our lives as the subject of continuous mug shots throughout the day, would we alter the things we do? If our lives were truly transparent, what would we do differently? If you knew that your picture was being taken as you drove, would your responses and actions during the drive change? Are there pictures that would be taken of you during the next 24 hours that you would be embarrassed if anyone else saw them? What would your kids, spouse, mother or best friend say if they saw those pictures?

The pictures on my new coffee mug remind me of many fond memories of Philadelphia. Each of them made me smile or feel other emotions as I thought about the locations. The pictures made me see other images around Philadelphia that while not reflected on the mug are images just as clear for me that reflect my life and times growing up there. The pictures made me think of mug shots and caused me to wonder what the photos of my next 24 hours would be like. I would hope that I could live so transparently that if my photos were posted, they would not embarrass my mother, damage my children, or ruin my reputation. That would be a lot to live up to. I am not there yet. But maybe someday I will take a sip from my new coffee mug, and when I see the pictures, I will think that you could post any picture from my life on that mug and I would be honored if anyone saw them. I may never get to that place, but in my mind’s eye that is a really nice picture.