Silver Adept (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silveradept) wrote2011-10-26 12:33 am
silveradept) wrote2011-10-26 12:33 am
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Shadow Idol, Prompt One: On making feet move as lips do.
So, I don't think I can commit to any Idol-type programme. ETA: For those unaware of what that entails, the largest one is run out of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
therealljidol - it's basically a contest where each week, entrants respond to a writing prompt given to them, and then do a fair bit of requesting their friends vote for them so that they can advance to the next round by not being the person on the bottom of the voting list. This continues, first in preliminary groupings, and then eventually the winners of the group stage are pitted against each other in more difficult and more numerous prompts until one is crowned the winner. It takes its name from the programme American Idol (Britain's Got Talent), where the mechanism is that persons perform music and then the telephone audience registers their votes by calling a toll-free number.
One, my life interferes far too much to be able to commit to a weekly writing prompt, much less prompts with Twists, and two, considering that each season grows greater by leaps and bounds, I don't really feel that my writing would ever be able to measure up to those pieces that will be present. More on that in a bit. So, instead, I'm probably doing what would be considered the "Home Game" version, but I think it deserves a nice title. So:
Welcome to Shadow Idol.
We take the meaning from the idea of the Shadow Cabinet of His/Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. So we follow the writing prompts, but with no pressure on eliminations, byes, or other such structures that the real LJ Idol employs.
------------------
Prompt #1: "When you pray, move your feet."
Devoid of context, a proverb is usually more annoying than useful, believe it or not. There are a lot of ways that we could take this directive - praying is best done somewhere where you can walk, so don't build churches, but use the ones that nature and creation has provided for you. Or perhaps you should only pray when you are doing something that you love to do, so that the movement that you do is your prayer. Or even better, the deity you pray to is a dancer and prefers you to express your prayer and adulation through your feet, esctatically or not. Classically speaking, there are a lot of deities that like ritual dance.
For others, it means that prayer without doing anything to show that you are committed to your religion is empty words and promises. There no personal experience there, either, as I've never been on a mission trip to other plaves of the world, to offer physical assistance in their lives as part of a package that is supposed to convince them of the inherent superiority of my religion as well. (After all, evangelism is a part of a trip like that - it may not be shouted from the rooftops, but it's there) The denomination I was raised in was pretty comfortable with their position in the world, had the weight of institution behind it, and generally didn't feel the need to go out and actively proselytize. Things were pretty insular in there, as I would find out from a friend who part of a more actively evangelizing denomination. From my perspective, the major difference between Us and Us was whether or not the ritual was symbolic or literal in its applications. From his, the question was whether or not faith required works to obtain the full measure of salvation offered. I think that day was the one where I really learned perspective exists. It would be a few years before I learned how to take religion and philosophy in a "ha, ha, only serious" sort of way.
This is a problem with my life, actually - I lack experience in a lot of the things that other people might take for granted, or that we've been led to believe is part of the experience of growing up in this country. No car at sixteen, no high school sweethearts, no wild collegiate days. Nothing that would make proverbs have context, or that might spark the path that leads to enlightenment. There's a lot that I missed out on, and so I don't have any yearning for a Time That Never Was as a result. Hell, I missed the supposedly defining event of a generation by being in lecture when the event happened. I didn't find out about it until after class.
And then, once I got out, I was supposed to finally be able to assert the control of my life that had been plotted out to that point, and strike out fully on my way to chase that imaginary Dream. And then the reality of work, rent, expenses, and the rest set in and rendered me an NPC in my own story, at least on a lot of major decisions. Of course, "Life is what happens when you were too busy paying attention to something else." or something like that, anyway. Without context, proverbs are empty words, too.
Maybe that's why everyone likes this idea of doing things to help you achieve your goals in addition to prayer, or magic, will-working, or any other number of ways to describe it. Rather than be simply at the mercy of the gods, or Fate, striving to do gives someone the feeling of being able to control or influence their outcomes, to make them a PC instead of an NPC. It breaks down horribly, of course, when events that are truly out of their control cause difficulties and problems with their lives, but for the most part, it works.
I don't have the answers. I'm still learning some of the questions. And I could use a bit more context for proverbs. But until then, the feet keep moving, if not in a dance, then stepping forward or back, or side to side.
(This was the entry for prompt one of Shadow Idol, where I try to tackle the prompts as I can, but have no contest/elimination worries to deal with. Join in if you like. Critique the writing if you like as well, because I'm sure some part of the Idol-like process is the ranking of what you find good writing and what you don't, be in "this doesn't tug my hearstrings" or "this reads like stream-of-consciousness and I like narrative / essay styles.")
therealljidol - it's basically a contest where each week, entrants respond to a writing prompt given to them, and then do a fair bit of requesting their friends vote for them so that they can advance to the next round by not being the person on the bottom of the voting list. This continues, first in preliminary groupings, and then eventually the winners of the group stage are pitted against each other in more difficult and more numerous prompts until one is crowned the winner. It takes its name from the programme American Idol (Britain's Got Talent), where the mechanism is that persons perform music and then the telephone audience registers their votes by calling a toll-free number.One, my life interferes far too much to be able to commit to a weekly writing prompt, much less prompts with Twists, and two, considering that each season grows greater by leaps and bounds, I don't really feel that my writing would ever be able to measure up to those pieces that will be present. More on that in a bit. So, instead, I'm probably doing what would be considered the "Home Game" version, but I think it deserves a nice title. So:
Welcome to Shadow Idol.
We take the meaning from the idea of the Shadow Cabinet of His/Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. So we follow the writing prompts, but with no pressure on eliminations, byes, or other such structures that the real LJ Idol employs.
------------------
Prompt #1: "When you pray, move your feet."
Devoid of context, a proverb is usually more annoying than useful, believe it or not. There are a lot of ways that we could take this directive - praying is best done somewhere where you can walk, so don't build churches, but use the ones that nature and creation has provided for you. Or perhaps you should only pray when you are doing something that you love to do, so that the movement that you do is your prayer. Or even better, the deity you pray to is a dancer and prefers you to express your prayer and adulation through your feet, esctatically or not. Classically speaking, there are a lot of deities that like ritual dance.
For others, it means that prayer without doing anything to show that you are committed to your religion is empty words and promises. There no personal experience there, either, as I've never been on a mission trip to other plaves of the world, to offer physical assistance in their lives as part of a package that is supposed to convince them of the inherent superiority of my religion as well. (After all, evangelism is a part of a trip like that - it may not be shouted from the rooftops, but it's there) The denomination I was raised in was pretty comfortable with their position in the world, had the weight of institution behind it, and generally didn't feel the need to go out and actively proselytize. Things were pretty insular in there, as I would find out from a friend who part of a more actively evangelizing denomination. From my perspective, the major difference between Us and Us was whether or not the ritual was symbolic or literal in its applications. From his, the question was whether or not faith required works to obtain the full measure of salvation offered. I think that day was the one where I really learned perspective exists. It would be a few years before I learned how to take religion and philosophy in a "ha, ha, only serious" sort of way.
This is a problem with my life, actually - I lack experience in a lot of the things that other people might take for granted, or that we've been led to believe is part of the experience of growing up in this country. No car at sixteen, no high school sweethearts, no wild collegiate days. Nothing that would make proverbs have context, or that might spark the path that leads to enlightenment. There's a lot that I missed out on, and so I don't have any yearning for a Time That Never Was as a result. Hell, I missed the supposedly defining event of a generation by being in lecture when the event happened. I didn't find out about it until after class.
And then, once I got out, I was supposed to finally be able to assert the control of my life that had been plotted out to that point, and strike out fully on my way to chase that imaginary Dream. And then the reality of work, rent, expenses, and the rest set in and rendered me an NPC in my own story, at least on a lot of major decisions. Of course, "Life is what happens when you were too busy paying attention to something else." or something like that, anyway. Without context, proverbs are empty words, too.
Maybe that's why everyone likes this idea of doing things to help you achieve your goals in addition to prayer, or magic, will-working, or any other number of ways to describe it. Rather than be simply at the mercy of the gods, or Fate, striving to do gives someone the feeling of being able to control or influence their outcomes, to make them a PC instead of an NPC. It breaks down horribly, of course, when events that are truly out of their control cause difficulties and problems with their lives, but for the most part, it works.
I don't have the answers. I'm still learning some of the questions. And I could use a bit more context for proverbs. But until then, the feet keep moving, if not in a dance, then stepping forward or back, or side to side.
(This was the entry for prompt one of Shadow Idol, where I try to tackle the prompts as I can, but have no contest/elimination worries to deal with. Join in if you like. Critique the writing if you like as well, because I'm sure some part of the Idol-like process is the ranking of what you find good writing and what you don't, be in "this doesn't tug my hearstrings" or "this reads like stream-of-consciousness and I like narrative / essay styles.")
no subject
no subject
Also, good choice of iconography from Transmet.