So despite how busy I am, I recently volunteered to help with the Friday Shootout.
AAARGGH!! %#$&!!. FishPhooey! It's been less than 24 hours and I've already broken my non-resolution to stop whining! Delete delete delete.This week, I happily volunteered to help with the Friday Shootout since it has been a huge part of my routine now for over three years. And Administrator Rebecca (hmm...sounds like she should have a leather ruler in her hand) assigned me to choosing Spotlight Photos once or twice a month.
After hearing that, my palms got sweaty. How do I choose? How do I judge what pictures to put in and which ones to leave out. I hate judging. Judgment. Judgmental. This is good, that is bad. You win, they lose. Yuck. I hate that stuff. But it is all around me! Expressing judgments about good and bad is the whole reason for political campaigns, news programs, war, the death penalty and almost all other killing.
As I began hyperventilating, I suddenly had a vision of Adam and Eve.
From childhood onward, I thought I knew the basic story. They weren't suppose to eat the apple but the phallic snake convinced Eve to talk Adam into it and they ate it and God kicked them out of the garden.
I've seen lots of paintings of Adam and Eve, suddenly looking ashamed and naked except for fig leaves, being sent out of the garden. So I always assumed that God had caught them doing hanky panky which must, of course, be evil. And he made them wear clothes!
It wasn't until much later that it dawned on me that it wasn't about sex. The apple wasn't some evil aphrodisiac. Sex wasn't bad. How else was this harried couple going to multiply -- although I also wonder about the resulting insanity of 2,000 years of inbreeding. It wasn't even an apple. It was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Wait a minute! How can that be a bad thing? Don't we have to know what's good and what's bad? How can you create a civilization without knowing the difference between good and evil. Don't we call people who lack any knowledge of good and evil "sociopaths"?Isn't it necessary to teach our children? Don't hit your sister! Don't bite the cat! Don't throw things at Nana! Don't write on the wall! Don't play with those kids.
But I can't quite figure out how it would work if we could stop using our knowledge of good and evil and stop judging each other. We'd have a lot of unemployed lawyers, judges, generals and politicians. What would we do for entertainment if we didn't have the Roman Coliseum or U-tube? On the other hand, I tend to think that God knew what He was doing. I can't imagine any other knowledge-giving fruit that would have had such dire consequences. Surely there must have been a fruit of the tree of empathy. Of a fruit of the tree of forgiveness.
Or maybe that didn't show up until the New Testament. I may not be the best person to choose the Friday Shootout Pictures. Or what shoes I should wear tomorrow, for that matter.
Life is so difficult. And now I'm just pissed at Adam and Eve for being such self-centered idiots! We should lock them under the jail and throw away the key! Oh, wait. That's just another judgment, isn't it. Trapped again.
And was there a fruit of the tree of hanky panky?
good luck.
ReplyDeleteI used to read everyone's, then routinely choose one from all participants and then pick 4 or five, trying to show one from each particpant over 5 or 6 weeks. For me it wasn't about photography - that is what it has evoled into - but about what each showed of their town within the topic. I think we can't even get up in the morning with making judgments....
Won't Bagman and Butler help with the choosing of pictures? And if all else fails and you really can not decide, simply throw dices put the participants' names on bits of paper and let one of the grandchildren pick one out of a hat :-)
ReplyDeleteIt makes you wonder what our race would be like if we HADN'T sprung out of 2000 years of inbreading.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the shootout, I agree that it is about fun, participation and picking doesn't have to be tough. I really try mostly to get around to everyone -- as long as they are on Linkey because I can't just go looking everywhere. And I like to make comments, of course. This blog was really more about the damages the human race does out of self righteousness and being judgemental. And, of course, I am part of the human race.
ReplyDeleteOne of my best friends is that precisely because he is so NOT judgemental, and his attitude towards me made such a change to what I was used to getting from other people, that it made me very grateful and endeared him very much to me.
ReplyDeleteOf course I am not entirely immune to being self-righteous and judgemental at times, but I do try hard to avoid both (not always successful).
The fruit of forgiveness and, to an extent, relaxation would have come in handy back then, too.
Hell, if it wasn't for people being judgemental we would have a boring vanilla society. I kinda miss doing the Friday Photos, but my life is just too hectic now to commit to anything.
ReplyDeleteWell Mark a couple of my shots got picked over the last couple of years and I know they had nothing exceptional to demonstrate so just as Ginger and others suggested just pick and swap around. You are perfect for that job. Just add a comical comment or two and we will love it.
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