The document contrasts the speaker to a man in a photograph, noting many ways they are different. The man in the photograph is static and unchanging while the speaker is alive and experiences the normal human functions of breathing, laughing, feeling thirsty, sweating, needing to rest, going to the bathroom, sneezing when sick, and acquiring gray hair with age. In contrast, the man in the photograph is long dead while the speaker is still living and able to impact the world.