From a first look, sneak peek, at Age of Ultron, to finding out the Fraction's Hawkeye series is ending, to seeing Futurama's skyline re-imagined in beautiful 3-D, the past twenty-four hours have been a geeky, emotional roller coaster. Coupled with a reaction to Facebook post I received yesterday, and I've been all over the map.
But I'd like to talk about that Facebook post and how it connects to the class.
Critical thinking came up once or twice yesterday and I'd like to make that my class take-away because I applied it. To me, this class is about asking why, about going deeper into what makes us tick. And in the case of that post, it was more like ticked off.
You've probably seen it floating around on your feed: one girl tags some friends to post five pictures that makes them feel beautiful and then they're supposed to tag others. My newsfeed was littered with these particularly patterned posts, and when I got tagged to do it, I became furious.
But instead of just logging out and sulking the rest of the day, I applied those critical thinking skills and the mindset of the class and asked myself "why." Why did this post make me so angry? Was it because I'd seen so much of it all day long? Was it the idea that all these girls (and it was like 95% girls) were following a trend like a bunch of sheep? Was it because I didn't have any pictures that I thought made me feel beautiful? Answer to that: Maybe...
Now, I'm not very photogenic (and I say that in the sense that I think
I've taken maybe three good pictures in my life - excluding professionally done senior photos) and being the
photographer in the family meant that I spent far more time behind the
camera than in front of it. So I don't have the "selfie" gene that seems
to be manifesting in my age group. And is that why I was so pissed off? Yes. Because these girls were posting pictures of themselves. Some had friends and family in them, but the main subject was THEM. (Please do not take offense if you did this on Facebook. If you have photos that make you feel beautiful, awesome! Don't let me stop you.)
Okay, so, I didn't post my five pics, but I got thinking about it, and if I did, I probably would have posted pictures of my art. Because that's what makes me feel beautiful. My art is my soul and as long as I keep making things I genuinely love, then my soul is happy, so my work is good, and the cycle goes on. And that's the part I want to keep in mind for my future artistic endeavors. That it's okay to make something that's awful, as long as I don't let it get to my soul too much. Because I know I've made some pieces I've very proud of. And those pieces are the ones that make me feel beautiful. So thank you, critical thinking, for allowing me to arrive to that conclusion. And thank you, Seeing Sideways, for nurturing that skill.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go attend a funeral for the best comic book series ever. (You may leave condolences in the comments below.)
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