Perceptions

     When I told a select few members of my family that I was going to start a blog, they all had the same sorts of questions.  I'm not referring to those who asked me what a blog was. LOL.  They all wanted to know who my audience was going to be and what my topic was.  I thought about this long and hard.  I guess I figured my target audience was going to be anyone that felt like reading it, and my topic was going to be-- well, random.  Anyone that knows me will inevitably use the word random when describing me, anyway.  It just seemed to make sense.

     The first post is always the most difficult, and many of the blogs I've visited use the first post to introduce themselves to the reader.  I'm not going to do that.

     When I was at college, I did some modeling for the art department.  And, before you ask, not nudes.  At least not in the classroom.  One day when I was perusing some of the works in progress, I came across a lovely canvas that had an ethereal quality to it.  There were lots of organic colors that faded and bled into one another.  I asked the creator what he was going to call it.  He told me that he would never name a work because it then became a work of what he termed "limited artistic value."  Confused, I asked him if he was talking about monetary value, to which an equally confused, "no," was returned.  He then guided me through the painting and illustrated his point.  "If I title this piece Rainbow, what is the first thing you will think of when you see it?  A rainbow, right?  What if I title it Early Dawn?  Then what are your thoughts?  If you title your work, you are quantifying your expression, your art.  You then get pushed into a box or genre that doesn't lend itself well to creativity.  You find yourself tangled in phrases like 'scope of work' and words of that nature... words that were never meant for art."

     That experience is what I thought about when I was deciding what to do with this blog and its first post.  The thoughts who is my audience?  do I need to identify them?  what should I say about myself that is enough to satisfy a reader without subjecting my family to possible harm?  will this embarrass anyone?  who am I kidding with this? kept swirling in my head all night long.  Then I thought of art class.  I thought about the concept of "limited artistic value."  If I tell you who I am, how old I am, where I live, what I like/dislike, what I do...  can you really decide for yourself who I am?  Do I really need to quantify that for you?  Can you even quantify the essence of a person?

     I believe that all of our relationships whether personal, business, or just social are really not about who we are as people.  They are based solely on our perceptions of the person with whom we are interacting.  I know that a person I see at work every day is a mom, an employee, she's athletic, she's determined.  But what is she to me?  What is the first thing I think of when I see her?  Do I think about her job title?  The number of kids she has? How many miles she ran today?  No.  I think about laughter and friendship.  I  think about shopping together and the last joke she told me.  Some people don't like her.  Their perception of her is different than mine.  Where I see determination, they may see her as aggressive or offensive.  Perception is everything.

     My perceptions of myself are irrelevant.  What I do, where I live, what I look like is all irrelevant.  My relationship with you, a reader, needs only to be based on what you feel about me through my writing.  You may think I'm funny or stupid or (fill in random adjective, here).  You'll make the decision to either read or not.  And that is what perception is all about.  I may be someone's bright spot or their instigator.  I may be someone's inspiration.  I may be a thorn in someone's side.  What I am is for you to decide.  Who will I be to you?