A Caricature or Portrait

Have we become caricatures

in a world too impatient

to capture the fullness of each other?

The artist sketch

becomes a beautiful painting

through the layered oils

that demands time to set

If asked, which would you want

A pencil caricature or

An oil painted portrait

We choose the caricature if we feel we can not afford the portrait

But time is a currency that we all possess

in equal abundance - at this moment

We deceive ourselves when we think

we must be meager misers of time

Spend lavishly on understanding

each other

I wrote this poem as I looked at the oil paintings that my mom had made throughout the years. I saw her at work. It took time to paint with oil. You had to lay down a base and allow for various layers to dry. Oil paintings have an enduring quality. When you are on vacation you may stumble upon the artist who will sketch a fun portrait of you with a pencil or charcoal. It may take 15 or even 30 minutes. They seldom last for long…easily smudged as you roll up the paper. You will never see a person doing an oil portrait of you while you wait. An oil painting is never brief in its creation.

I have shared an adage that has served me well in my business life…be brief, be bright, and be gone. Sometimes we focus on the brief and gone part and forget about the time it takes to be bright. We embrace caricatures in corporate lives and in the physician’s office. Time in these settings is part of the power dynamic to ensures you know whose time is most valuable. What is actually heard are sketches of what is happening…created through the distortion of the artists pencil. Information passed as knowledge as it fits into a 15 minute slot of time. But to get the full picture it does take time. There is a time for brevity and a time for completeness.

When it comes to developing and maintaining relationships I would want time to be spent lavishly on understanding each other.

Take the time, because you have the time… and before you find that your life was but a caricature rather than a portrait that endures the passage of time.