And my son, ten years old with a school project and a zoom lens, had understood, without being taught, the thing his aunt had spent forty years failing to learn.

That a camera does not create the truth; it only reveals what is already there, for anyone with the courage to look.

Gwen had pointed her lens at a lie, and it had captured her lie, and then it had captured, entirely by accident, the truth she was hiding underneath.

And Liam had pointed his lens at his sister, at the real, unhidden, unedited beauty the rest of the world had taught her to conceal, and it had captured that too, and made it undeniable.

My son taught this family that true vision is not about hiding the blemishes of the world, or scrubbing away the marks that make a person unique, or curating a false perfection to show an audience.