Reflections on an image

I tried many times to get a picture from my computer onto this page. I tried to copy and paste, but it would not paste. Let me describe it to you. It is a picture of my husband and myself when we were getting married in Belize a little over 3 years ago. The ceremony was held on a gazebo that was at the end of a long dock. I don't remember the name of the body of water but you can see the water in the background and the shore in the distance. I am wearing a dress with large red flowers on it that I had bought, not for this purpose, when I went in to have new tires put on my car at JC Penny at Virginia Center Commons. I had some time to kil so wandered through the mall and found this beautiful dress for $19.95. Can't beat that for the cost of a wedding dress. Rob, my husband is wearing khaki shorts and a blue shirt with some kind of crazy decoration on it. Neither of us is wearing shoes (although you can't see that in the picture.)
The thing that is striking about the picture is the fact that we both look so sad. I haven't looked at these pictures in a while and when I conjured the image in my head during class I did not see the sad expressions.
I can speak for myself and hopefully for Rob as well that we were NOT sad at all. We were trying not to cry (me less sucessfully than he) but not from sadness. Rather from the sheer joy of finally being with the person that completes us. I had been married for many years in a tumultous relationship and had decided when my first husband died that I would NEVER put myself in THAT situation again. But then I met Rob and knew that there were some good people in the world and I was one of the lucky ones.
So the interesting thing about the image is that it tells a story, but maybe not the one you might make up for yourself if you see it without knowing the history behind the characters portrayed.

This was an interesting assignment. It prompted me to think about the reality of versus the impression conveyed by an image.