Monday, May 16, 2011

Mullets, Muffintops and bad whatever...


There are those that believe that the end is upon us. Judgment day, the end of the world, etc are being bantered around with estimated ends being anywhere from the 21st of this month to May 21, 2012.

But what does judgment mean? Isn't every day a judgment of sorts?

We try to be the best parent, the best friend, the best child, the best whatever, constantly measuring our own performance against invisible criteria that no one has defined nor ever can.

We are told-- depending on your views in a variety of words-- but essentially, not to judge others.

How often do we? How often do we glance at a muffin top or a mullet and discuss it at length? Giggle over anything that doesn't fit our description of perfect...

The main engagement of the writer is towards truthfulness; therefore he must keep his mind and his judgment free.
Gabrielle Roy

As a writer, if we challenge ourselves to not judge--to write unopinionated works--it is next to impossible to write fiction. We have to give the character very decisive opinions on a plethora of topics as without them they have no life, no breath. But what about characters who believe other than what we do? Usually, they are the villain. Be it conscious or unconscious, we imbibe our bad guys with all that we personally do not like, find loathsome and otherwise repellent.

What an interesting story it would be if we took all those same characteristics and wrote them into a character that wasn't evil...

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
Oscar Wilde

This all may seem sort of random but lately I have been struggling with judging based on what information I can find... Which isn't fair. Who is represented well by things like age? Who is simply what the internet presents them as being? But it is hard not to play connect the dots and come up with a logical judgment.

Hard but something we should challenge ourselves to daily, in this authors opinion.

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