I Found God in the Camera Store

Hopefully, God does not read my blog.

Southeastern Camera, located in Carrboro, North Carolina, is well regarded as one of the best camera shops within the state for novice photographers and experienced lensmen alike.

Within the store, you will find a myriad of services and products. The most refined, and surely the most lucrative aspect of this experience, are the clerks who provide such assistance. This is where I happened to find God.

His name is Dillon. He is only God in the sense that the shop acts as a temple, for which we bring cameras to with prayers that we may be provided an answer. The other clerks know enough to do the same, but Dillon also has disciples, friends who remain in the temple beyond their time of need. It is said that some people come to the shop with no desire for service or product; they simply wish to enjoy the atmosphere and conversation held within the Southeastern Camera Store.

Upon my last visit, Dillon told me about the tumor in his head. When I inquired further, and asked if he was going to die (a silly question, I know), he replied: “It is all on borrowed time.”

I often think about the space in his head that is cancerous. Does it explain his prolonged sleeping issues and headaches? Perhaps I hope that his relationship to death is different than most, as mine is. We are all going to die; the question is, when?

I come to the conclusion that he must die in those hospital beds, those scratchy sheets that warp beneath fluorescent lights. I would die too, if they flooded my mind with chemicals of the same kind. But I won’t, and I can’t, and this is why Dillon is the holy figure instead.

He continued his answer by stating: “If I am expected to die a horrible and wretched death, I will do something about it, but if I am to die in any painless moment, then I would not change a thing.” What a thoughtful answer to such a juvenile question.

His response, and the look that took over his eyes as he spoke, continues to fill me with an innate sense of gratitude. I appreciate the bittersweetness of my life, unbounded after this moment we shared. Even, it feels as though he gifted it to me, in the same way he gifts me with film and knowledge.

This really is all on borrowed time; I now understand his disciples, for I too would be contented to use the rest of this present in finding God in the Southeastern Camera Store.