I've been away for a few weeks so I'm rather out of the picture.

My comments:

Suppose, let’s say, you took a group picture with your colleagues at a party to celebrate someone’s birthday. The next day, you receive the group picture but do not find your face in it – Apparently the person who took the picture left you out of the frame by mistake.

Huh. That’s not very nice, but it gives you a perfect idea of how it is like to be left out of the picture. When you’re out of the picture, you’re not there – there, where everything’s going on.

Figuratively speaking, if you’ve been away and therefore kind of feel like you’re out of the picture, you no longer know what’s going on. There’s a new boss in your office, for instance and you do not know about it. Or someone’s got demoted, or other things of that nature happened during your absence.

In other words, you’re no longer in the thick of it in general.

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本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.