It's so easy to become offended. It actually comes pretty natural. Someone says something. You feel it's directed at you Strong reaction follows No need to react, it's got nothing to do with you as a person Imagine some remarks about academic work versus manual one, a bit dismissive about the latter. You don't have a degree and never wanted one. You know very well it takes years of experience and training to do what you're doing. Talent is involved too, as some people do have "two left hands". You still feel you should add something to the conversation, but not sure if it is going to be well-received. No need to enlighten the other party right now Most people think in terms of opposites. If it's not this, it's that and it can't be anything else. Certainty of one's convictions is also a form of self-reassurance that everything is stable in one's world. Other points of view cannot be allowed because they are disruptive. Cognitive disrup
How can anyone not be fascinated by the origin of words? Half of misunderstandings and miscommunication would disappear. The other half would be sorted out painlessly, usually round dinner tables or in cafes.
Take photography for instance, and its fast-growing progeny, photos. Thank heavens for digital photography, otherwise the end of the world could come from a deluge of photo prints.
Dictionaries tell us that 'photography' comes from two Greek words which, taken together, mean "drawing with light'.
It is such a delicate, almost diaphanous combination. Unfortunately, the weightless, imponderable nature of photography is not felt beyond its name.
Once it's taken, a photo becomes the object of continuous scrutiny and if it is a portrait, or just a snapshot, recriminations and self-abuse follow.
"You should have told me you're taking a photo", "I told you I didn’t like my photo taken', "Let me put on some make-up", "I look awful", "I hate myself".
Painters, using oil or charcoal, can stray as far away as they want from the reality test. I am sure some of Picasso's models were quite happy to acquire immortality, despite not being even remotely recognisable.
The camera, on an iPhone or in its full physical splendour, is just a brush. Positioning it in a more favourable angle for the sitter does not alter its character. On the one hand here is a man-made object, too recent to be anything else than a primitive tool, on the other hand there is light, as unfathomable today as it was in ancient times.
Drawing with light the contours of a face or a body can only be a compromise between the tool and the material. That's why photo-altering tools have been invented, to make the compromise less apparent and satisfy at the same time our general propensity for the ideal form.
TBC
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