Small Deviations from What We Should Do Today
The new technology available for photographers is really amazing. I know because I've been a photographer for over 4 decades and the things possible now were not even dreamt of 20 years ago. I'm not just thinking about the digital chips, storage, processing, AI used in photography, and so much more. All of that is mind-blowing stuff, but there is something more basic that is easy to overlook. I'm think about lens stabilization. It is common today, and is beginning to be taken for granted. It has changed the basics of what we can see clearly and easily in dramatic ways. Turning large equipment and stands into handheld devices that fit in our pockets.
The basic idea is using very small motors, movement sensors, and very fast computer chips to cause lenses to instantly compensate for a user's tiny movements. This technology is in everything now from the phone you have in your pocket, to binoculars used for hunting or birding, almost every camera lens made these days, to even things like the back-up camera on your car. The sensors and computer chips sense movement, and even more amazingly, predict a user’s future movements. Then using the micro-motors built in the lens and camera compensate and move the internal workings very small amounts in opposite directions. So whether it is a windy day, or you are just a bit shacky, or even if your heart rate is causing the camera to move in even extremally small amounts, the lens will adjust before you even move, keeping everything perfectly stable. This keeps your vision and what the camera sees sharp and on target. This is especially noticeable with telephoto lenses or long viewing binoculars.
From a scene in “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Remember This Look on Movie and TV Screens? (Wes Anderson Does A Great with This Perspective Shot)
I remember when I was young, I loved playing with my dad's binoculars. I also remember how jumpy they were as I tried to see things far away. Not matter how I tried, I could not keep them still enough to really see clearly. At the time, that was part of the fun. I pretended I was some hero or cop in a movie. In my head I saw the scene on the large screen when they showed a point of view camara angle through what I'm sure were fake binoculars. You know the one, when on the screen you saw the two circles framing the action? Those shots were always jumpy and moving, so that was half the fun. Not really being able to clearly see what you were looking at while hand holding your device was a fact of life. The same was true in photography with a long telephoto lens. If you wanted a non-blurry photo you had to use a tripod in the old days.
The reason for this is that because the lens is pulling in light from a long way away. Even a slight movement here makes a huge movement there. Think about holding a flashlight or one of the laser pens or pointers at a wall 100 yards away. Move the light source in your hands just a millimeter and the light on the wall may move 5 or 10 feet. The distance multiples the change.
This same concept is true in our lives. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, always good with an aeronautical comparison told us of a tragedy caused by this principle in 1979.
"In 1979 a large passenger jet with 257 people on board left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica and back. Unknown to the pilots, however, someone had modified the flight coordinates by a mere two degrees. This error placed the aircraft 28 miles (45 km) to the east of where the pilots assumed they were. As they approached Antarctica, the pilots descended to a lower altitude to give the passengers a better look at the landscape. Although both were experienced pilots, neither had made this particular flight before, and they had no way of knowing that the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m).
"As the pilots flew onward, the white of the snow and ice covering the volcano blended with the white of the clouds above, making it appear as though they were flying over flat ground. By the time the instruments sounded the warning that the ground was rising fast toward them, it was too late. The airplane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board.
"It was a terrible tragedy brought on by a minor error—a matter of only a few degrees.
"Through years of serving the Lord and in countless interviews, I have learned that the difference between happiness and misery in individuals, in marriages, and families often comes down to an error of only a few degrees." ("A Matter of a Few Degrees", April 2008)
The Effect We Can Have On Others
In April of 2023 Elder Allen D. Haynie took this concept even further and added some thoughts. He showed the effect that parent's decisions and actions can have on children. Small changes or deviations from course by the parent are multiplied greatly in the course children will make. Time works like distance did for the light experiment above. Elder Richard L. Evans observed, "Some parents mistakenly feel that they can relax a little as to conduct and conformity … that they can ease up a little on the fundamentals without affecting their family or their family’s future. But if a parent goes a little off course, the children are likely to exceed the parent’s example." Elder Haynie added this thought to those comments, "Our seemingly small deviations, quiet neglect, or whispered criticisms in response to prophetic counsel may result in our only walking dangerously near the edge of the covenant path; but when magnified by the adversary in the lives of the rising generation, such actions may influence them to leave that path altogether. Such a result is a generational price that is too high."
Serving as a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the last few years, I have seen many young parents decide that they no longer need religion or the church in their lives. They tell me how grateful they are for growing up in a "spiritual environment" and that growing up around those experiences made them what they are today. They have come to believe they no longer need that influence so they take a step back from their beliefs and habits. I have wondered with them at times, what effect these decisions will have on their children. If their growing up and worshiping with others of their faith made them what they are, what effect will their decision to move away, even in small steps, have on the next generation?
While I was taking a walk today and thinking about this, the thought came to my mind that small deviations from what we should do today have a large effect on what we want to be in the future. That effect will only grow larger in the next generation.
