Some cultures believe that a camera will steal your soul. I hate having my picture taken. Seriously.

I am one of the least photogenic people on Earth, I think. It has nothing to do with self-image. I can look at myself in the mirror, and while I recognize that I'm no Jason Statham/Brad Pitt/Zac Ephron/Fill-In-The-Blank, I realize that I'm not a bad-looking guy, but somehow, inevitably, the camera fails to capture any of that charm: I squint, I sneeze, my chin somehow recedes into my neck, I force a smile, and the image is ruined. In a (literal) flash am reconfigured from reasonably attractive to unreasonably goofy. And the only thing worse than having my picture taken is having to look at those pictures afterward. I don't care what you think. That isn't me!

Photography is my one hang-up. I don't know why, no matter how easy-going I am in almost every other way, people seem to take my photophobia as some kind of personal affront. I will walk to the moon for you, barefoot, across miles of hot coals and broken glass. I will give you my kidney, and if you can't use mine, I'll find you someone else's. These are the things I will do for you, because you are my friend. All I ask in return is that you not expect me smile for the damn camera. Nevertheless, my refusal to be photographed is taken as an insult.

I don't have much use for taking photos of other things either. I'm of the opinion that if you stop to catalog an experience, then you're not really experiencing it to its fullest.

I trust my memory ahead of a camera, which is good. A very dear friend of mine, with whom I'd only recently reconnected, appears to have disappeared from the face of the planet...I have, maybe, three photographs of her. A friendship that's lasted 10 years, more or less, and I have, at most, three photographs.

I still can't forget her.