Everyday Inspiration: Day 12

Critique a piece of work…

Hello HQ-ers,

At first, I was a little anxious about this prompt for a number of reasons that made a over-thinker come up with questions I now share with you:

• Who the Hell am I to critique anything?
• What difference would my critique make?
• Where do I pick the right piece of work to start to critique?
• When to critique anything as if it’s not timely, is that then not just another no-body’s opinion?
• Why do I put myself through this?
• How will I get readers to actually read a critique objectively especially if I pick a provocative piece?

Do I dare Disturb the universe?

T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland

Then, it happened!

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The ‘lightbulb’ moment!

If you have to say or do something controversial, aim so that people will hate that they love it and not love that they hate it.

Criss Jami, Killosophy

So I decided to tackle this task as an ‘open letter’ of sorts to a young couple that we have all heard of. To a husband and wife that we have all had an opinion on. To two people in the limelight. To a mother and father that are no different to any other parent that wants to protect their families. To a man born into a way of life and the woman who worked to find her way of life.

My aim is to tackle this task with objectivity. I’m neither conformist or anarchist, I’m neither right or wrong. I merely write from what I have seen and heard from them via many sources. I merely write as I felt a resonance when they described how they felt.

There’s a sort of ‘mob mentality’ surrounding this couple. Anything in the mainstream and social media about them seems to create a knee-jerk reaction of anger and disdain. Anyone who tries to voice a fairer opinion on some channels, gets laughed at or shut down.

Now, that doesn’t phase me at all. I’m quite resilient to online trolls having dealt with real life ones for a long time. What does phase me is the hypocritical nature of this behaviour. I mean how can you post “be kind” today and then slate this couple tomorrow? It makes no sense, whatsoever.

You don’t just cherry pick who deserves kindness and compassion and who doesn’t just because you have a personal issue with their very existence which by the way, impacts your life in no way.

At this point, if you think you can guess which couple I’m talking about, share your answer in the comments below.

Open Letter to you both

… of course, I watched it! I mean who didn’t? I don’t even know why I did really, as I’ve never actively held an interest in the ‘institution’. I’m glad I did though, if I hadn’t I’d not have known about the Foundation.

Took me awhile to digest what I’d watched, not through opinion, disbelief or anything like that. For me, I felt even though we are World’s apart, in such candid moments, I felt a sense of relief? No, that’s not the right word… I can’t explain it or find a word that really conveys the resonance I felt.

Status, Class, Privilege: You have them, I don’t.

Feeling out of your depth, trapped, endangered, unsupported, troubled, anxious, suicidal: We have that in common.

Wanting to make a difference in the World, without rocking the entire harbour let alone the boat: Our daily struggle.

Striving to raise your family as best as you can: as a mother myself to a young boy, I will try my best as long as I have breath within me to make sure I provide love, care, education, opportunities, a safe, warm environment and you know what? I don’t get it right all the time: like you both.

I’m currently developing my consultancy services to provide support, help educate and motivate anyone who may need it. Soon, with hard work, I will have online courses up on my site.

Writing has always been a passion of mine academically, professionally and personally. I feel while you can’t always accurately interpret tone within a text or the context may be misconstrued, for me, it’s the best way I express myself. It keeps me focused, clear, organised and productive. It calms me to be creative and I feel a sense of accomplishment in writing.

As a comedian, sometimes I forget my “why”

Where comedy is concerned, I began after a serious attempt at ending my life in 2014. I realised, in my survival that it wasn’t my time. That life doesn’t have to be so painful and I saw the World in a different way… Our World needs to laugh more.

Fast forward to 2021 and upon doing a little Googling, I found your Foundation online and ultimately, the Podcast. Now the first one made me laugh, feel inspired and really fired up. The next one though, as soon as I saw the list of names I thought, “who am I?” “I’m no-one to even think I can get involved!”

So I swatted away those negatives as best as I could and here we are.

Because regardless of status, class and privilege, I can…

• offer advice
• provide support
• include everyone
• raise awareness
• be charitable
• face challenges
• create
• motivate
• inspire
• help find voices
• listen
• empathise

To feel positive and then suddenly descend into doubt at a list of names who once were nobodies too, spurred me on to continue with my ventures and just live a life instead of just existing.

And I thank you both so much for that.

So my only critical critique is on the ‘accessibility’ of getting involved with the Foundation to everyone, not just A-Listers as it almost made me abandon this whole thing which is counterproductive.

Thank you for reading