Bohemian Critic

Did you see Bohemian Rhapsody? I've been feeling nostalgic lately...I know the "good old days" are just an illusion, they weren't as "good" as our memories usually are, but this movie took me back~ back to my teen years, back to when life sure seemed simpler. Back to a time where music anthems, not chaos, were the foundation of our lives.

This movie also brought home the fragility of life, of our choices, and what we want to focus our emotional energy on for our remaining time here on Earth. Which brings me to:

Critics.

After seeing this movie twice, I just caught a critic's review. Let's just say it was less than stellar.
And I began to think...
Who gave this person the right to judge someone's art? Thousands of people worked on that labor of love and a few sentences from him/her degraded it, and they were paid to criticize it!

Then I began to realize how much criticism exists that people are paid a living wage (or more) for: music, fashion, politics, books, food, paintings, film, theater...

We allowed this to happen. At some point, humanity said, "Go ahead and criticize each other. Make it very, very public. Your opinion matters. We'll even pay you to do it."

Look where that got us. Sometimes, too often, people even commit suicide over criticism.
And then we create #WorldKindnessDay to try to offset the human programming we have imposed upon ourselves.

It's not enough.

Let's start with us. Stop criticizing.
Stop criticizing your co-worker's fashion choices. Your sister's hair color. Your neighbor's choice in landscaping.
We say "our opinion matters" and it does. To us. But it doesn't matter to the rest of the world. When opinion becomes public criticism it becomes poisonous.
You only need to take a look at our nation to see where that's landed us.

So I'm asking you to go back to that kindergarten adage:
If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

And if any paid critics are reading this, please, do the world a favor and bite your tongue/pen. Say something nice instead, even if it's not your opinion.

Live in love,
Carrie

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