Today's prompt for the August Break with Susannah Conway is 'selfie'.
I love the concept of the Selfie; it's one of those unplanned consequences of digital media that is now part of everyday life. Famous individuals are no longer asked to sign autographs, but to take selfies with their delighted fans, and of course even the Pope and Royalty have posed for selfies. For many people, taking selfies is a normal part of their day, and as long as they are comfortable, not exploiting others, or being exploited themselves, that's fine.
Loving the selfie concept, and actually taking a selfie are though, two different things, and I just couldn't bring myself to take a full frontal, so to speak, instead choosing to slightly hide behind my camera. Being a mid century child of the Scottish Highlands, with a drop of Scottish Presbyterianism in my blood, my very dna rises up against taking a selfie, interpreting it as that worst of all behaviours: showing off . Showing Off was never to be tolerated in my childhood, my teenage years, or indeed since, and I have now become very self-censoring.
In the villages where I grew up, drunkenness; all sorts of petty criminality, incest, and murder were more easily tolerated than any behaviour that could be construed as self-promoting. Anything from wearing a too brightly coloured cardigan to school, to your dad buying an ostentatious car, was viewed with tight lipped disapproval and dark mutterings from the wider community. Even within my own, very loving family, we were warned time and time again not to display any behaviour that could be construed as immodest or self promoting.
So it is with very slight hesitation, a great big grin, and loving hug to my childhood self, that I post my selfie...
See you tomorrow.