First of all, here is a link to a gorgeous, impressive engagement photo shoot. I was literally drooling. The photos seem to tell the whole story of their relationship (well, the parts of their relationship involving a pink balloon), and the pictures capture their happiness. Plus, I love the muted color scheme and city locale. Totally, totally charming.
No, I do not know this couple. I found this on another blog I enjoy frequenting, but not knowing the couple has nothing to do with enjoying their pictures. I can only imagine how lovely their wedding will be!
Second of all, sometimes reading other people's totally, totally charming blogs makes me feel wildly insecure. Know the feeling? I *get* that blogs are a facade, but some people's facades make me feel, um, envious of their happy lives.
This is why I continue to teach "Othello" year after year. That, and I know the play pretty well and already have all of the assignments done. Othello is all about the destructive power of jealousy, the green-eyed monster and all that. It is a monster 'that doth mock the meat it feeds on'. Shakespeare understood it well.
That said, I am happy for other people's happiness. But it seems like an unavoidable sidetrack of the wonders of blogging/facebooking/flickring is comparison ... and comparison often turns into contrast which differentiates and indicates superiority/inferiority. True comparison is about finding similarities, so really what I need to watch out for is contrasting myself with others.
That, or learn how to take pale pink pictures from far, far away.
8 comments:
Actually, the envious/jealous part of blogs is killer for me, too ... I can read them and enjoy their wit/lives/charm and yet just feel so eaten up with what they have that I don't. At which point, you know, time to back slowly away from the computer ...
Yes, time to back slowly away and read a Neediest Cases profiles.
Do you think those superwomen bloggers know they're killing everyone with their wonderful-ness?
Ooh--that is quite a beautiful and original engagement photo. Charming is the perfect word.
I think about the superwoman blogging a lot. These types of blogs seem to fall into several categories: at it's base (and basest *snicker*), it's people who are trying intentionally trying to induce jealousy/resentment. Then a tier above that, it's people who don't want others to know that they have problems or bad days (and we all DO), and a tier above that, it might be a sense of privacy: happy to share the "good" things with their blaudience, don't want the "bad" things to be read by every blogstalker on the world wide web.
It's hard to strike that balance between blog life and real life. You have days that start with your baby pooping in her bath water while your seven-year-old has misplaced another school library book and your four-year-old won't eat anything but cold cereal . . . and it sort of spirals down from there (wait, this sounds familiar...). It's real, but not as fun to write about as, say, the book that you stayed up late to finish, or your house (finally) smelling good because you baked something successfully. :)
PS- I love your reasons for continuing to teach Othello! "Monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on"--so perfect for this post!
Your 'familiar' day made me smile, Becca. It's nice to hear about people's challenges too - it helps me gather strength.
This post made me think about the way I blog and what I write. I honestly don't write about all my bad days much. Maybe it's because I don't share a lot of my feelings on my blog? I do some, but I do seem to share more about our kids or fam in general and the happenings. I think I was thinking that for journaling, I was doing good (I want to slurp it all into books.) but when I truly think about that, I should include more feelings and more "bad days" too-but there is something about everyone reading it. Maybe I need to be humbled-maybe it's Ryan...he's very private and I don't think would like me writing about all that, but then...he would live. :) Anyway, thanks for the thought provoking post.
Fantastic ideas. Maybe I could be a photographer when i grow up. Wait, I dont' even know how to use the self timer on my camera.
Othello is worth reading and rereading for Iago too, not because he is good, but because he is utterly evil. His backhanded way of manipulation.
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