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.Good Morning Friends,
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today is Sunday November 29, 2009
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Take a look at my squash friends. Is that a face that you could love or only one that a mother could love? Well, this is my face friends and it is the only one that I have got. So, that means, that at the very least, I am the one who should be loving that face.
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What is in a face anyway? Before I answer that question for you, I should let my virgin readers ( first time readers ) know that I do quite a few personal things on these pages. This is a personal blog after all and I do many introspective things. I examine myself because I want to know who I am and I also want my readers to know who I am. In fact, I think we should all be doing that. It is healthy to know who you are and what you are. Knowing about yourself is one of the best things that a person can know. So, what has a picture of a face got to do with anything anyway? Well, take a look at my face and tell me what you see. That is what I am going to do right now. Now, I am a little prejudiced of course because I know a little bit more about me than the average person. I have an unfair advantage so to speak. But, do I really? Do you think that even the owner of a face knows more about it just because he owns it? Think about that for a minute. I own my face. Me and nobody else. I can do what I want with it. I can change it and put things on it to make it different if I am not happy with it, you know, things like makeup. So, that means that I can try to make myself look pretty or sad or ugly. I can do whatever I want with my face. And, I can do that because it is mine.
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But, what is my face telling you? What do you see? Do you see a happy or a sad person in that picture? Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. I know that I can easily say a thousand words about my squash, but can you? I will bet that you can and it would be very easy to do. Why just get into a train of thought and start writing and see what happens. Just like I am doing right now. Why, I bet you that I am well on my way to composing a thousand words about myself. And, if I did that do you think I would be thinking too much of myself if I did? Would I be egotistical if I did that? Maybe and maybe not.
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I think I look quite sad in the picture actually. I am eighteen years old in this picture you know and that is back in the year 1967. I cannot remember at all what I was thinking about at the time. Not one iota can I recall at this moment. Nothing. So, that means that we really do have to rely on what the picture is telling us. So, as you can see I know as much as the next person who is looking at my picture. We are equal in these terms. So, that means, whatever you are thinking about me is as valid as what I am thinking about me. For neither one of knows just what it is that I was thinking about at that moment back in 1967.
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I think I look sad and I do not know what my future will bring. That is what I see in that picture. I am not smiling that is for sure. Well then, you might say that most grade twelve students getting their picture are not smiling. And, how would we prove that anyway? Where is the proof? Well, since you asked I can provide that proof for you. Here is a link to the other people in my graduating class. Take a look for yourself and see how many are smiling and how many look just like me. Serious looking or sad, that is. Why, I bet you that there are many serious looking individuals in there, just like me. Take a look for yourself:
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My 1967 High School Classmates Here
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Anyway, now that you have had a chance to look at the photos what do you think? I know that there are some smiling faces in there, but there are also quite a few with expressions just like mine. So, that means that I might just be like a bunch of the other kids. That means that there is nothing really wrong then with my sad expression because there are other sad teenagers as well. I am not alone. Don't forget that being a teenager means that we can feel lots of things and our expressions can mean different things to different people.
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But, I mean, can you tell from my picture just what kind of a person I really am though? Would you even venture to guess just by looking at a picture that is? Like I said above, I have no idea what I was feeling on that day at all. I just remember being connected to my peers that is all. And, I think that is the big message about being a teenager. We were all in the same boat as it were and that was our common experience. Our whole world was in front of us and nobody had a clue what the future would bring for them. So, in that sense, I think it might make a little more sense to be sad rather than happy. Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing essentially wrong with being happy. I am only suggesting for what it is worth to you that it might make more sense to be sad looking rather than happy, simply because it is a more realistic approach to reality. Now, the other side of the coin, however, is that the happy people might be coming across as more self-confident and that kind of thing. So, if you want to test this hypothesis then just take a look at your own grad pictures and see who the happy people were. Are they successful now in your opinion? Perhaps even more successful than you? Wouldn't that mean that they were right to be happy when they were getting their pictures taken then? Or, maybe they were just happy personalities anyway so it doesn't really matter what kinds of expressions they had in their pictures anyway. Just some food for thought for you while you are looking at these teenage pictures.
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Anyway, now that I think about it, I look rather serious in that picture above. Perhaps even more serious than the average grad picture. I do actually consider myself to be a very serious personality now that I think about it. I mean, here I am at sixty and I really do spend a lot of time thinking. I cannot remember if I was a serious type or not as an older teenager though. I guess I must of been though because that is what my picture is trying to tell me. I guess the question now becomes, is it a good thing to be a serious person when all of the happy people seem to be be pretty successful at life and getting the things that they want out of it. But, then we really do not know for sure if that is the case across the board. We just don't know if all of the happy people in 1967 are actually successful and still happy. How would we know unless we could track them down and find out how they are making out and if they are happy or not? That is a pretty tough assignment I think you would have to agree. So, why don't we just stick to something which we know a little more about and that is the picture of me above.
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Like I said I looked serious then and I can look pretty serious now if you were able to look at me that is. But, I do have have some happy pictures of me as well. I don't actually look very sad in my most recent snaps at all. If you cruise through my blog you will notice that I am generally a happy person and content with my station in life at this point in the game. So, what does that mean anyway? Does it mean that the picture above is lying to us? Does it mean perhaps that all of the sad looking teenagers back in 1967 are actually all happy and does it mean that all of the happy looking people are now sad? Is that possible? Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't. All I know is that I looked quite forlorn in the picture above and that in real life in 2009 I can be quite a happy person. And, I have my recent snaps to prove it.
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So, maybe then it is better to be sad looking and realistic about one's future prospects. Maybe that is how one should deal with this business of life and what it is going to do for you. Like, maybe don't come across as overly ambitious or happy because that might do you wrong in the future. I mean, why tempt life by saying that you are happy and that you are going to be successful when you have no idea whether or not you will be successful and happy in the future? How can you predict those kinds of things anyway? Well, you cannot. Anyway, I guess the only thing that you can do is to take a look at your own grad photo and those of your friends and acquaintances and determine for yourself whether it was a good thing for them to look sad as opposed to being happy. Who was right and who was wrong to be looking the way they did when they were seventeen or eighteen years old?
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Just in case you are interested friends the word count in the above piece is exactly 1600 words. So, you can see how easy it is to construct something that is one thousand words. A university essay is in the order of between 1200 and 1500 words. Composing an essay of that length will easily get you through most topics, if you are being succint and focused that is. This composition that I just did was a rambling affair and was not meant to be coherent and well structured. I simply rambled and I got through. So, I am just giving you an idea of what a thousand words looks like once you start putting ideas down on paper.
