a drawning (pencil) / crtež (olovka)

pencil / olovka* The drawning is fairly recent and for some reason I find this face really comforting.

I like to think of myself as someone who understands that the world is not black and white. The older I get, the more complex and complicated this society we live in seems to be. I try not to judge too harshly and to always put things in prospective. Life has taught me that things are often not what they seem. Therefore, I would describe myself as someone who is cautious when it comes to labeling things and people. That wouldn't be an entirely correct description I'm adraid.

 You see, I was proven wrong on a more than a few instances when I had realized that I'm not as open minded as I believed myself to be. For instance, recently I've read a novel The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I always thought of her as someone who isn't a 'real author' and I remember laughing when I had read mean comments about her by Stephen Hawking and the like (all this before I had actually read something by her. Ages ago I did go to the movies to see the first film in the Twilight series, my date's choice not mine, and I didn't really care for it)

Well, I was obviously wrong as I read The Host in one day (all 500 hundred pages of it). The novel is wonderful, inteligent and well written and I'm really glad I've given it a chance (not a fair chance for I was absolutely prepared to hate it). It must be one of the best sf published recently and while it wouldn't make my top list (not that would mean too much because with sf I have a special relationship since childhood) it really is an excellent novel.

I'm also glad because it made we rethink what being open minded really is (and realizing some of my own personal failures in this department). Often we're served with the idea what an open minded/ artisitic/ scientific person should be like. According to that logic, Meyer shouldn't be a good writer because she is religious, doesn't use foul language and doesn't write about sex. But life doesn't work that way. In life either you're a good writer or you aren't...It always amazes me how much stereotypes and labelling one can find in scientific and academic circles...and by definition they should be open minded.

Sagan really disappointed me in some aspect as a novelist (amazing as his intellect had been) beacuse of his prejudice against people who are not atheists. He was a brilliant scientist and writer but to be a great novelist he lacked a bit of open mindness. Militant atheists are no less annoying than militant religious people, in fact they are a lot alike, as is anyone who feels the need to convince others that what he believes is the only truth.

Being proved wrong, realizing that something you thought was real really isn't... can be painful but it can also be fun. It can give us a whole new look on the world. I'm proven wrong every day and while at times it can be irritating at least it means I'm learning. Often we are NOT more or less what we think we are. Sometimes we are less, sometimes we are more...sometimes we only need we realize where we stand to be able to move on...and sometimes all those that wander are not lost- as Tolkien wisely put it.

In life don't let anyone label you...If you like fashion, it doesn't mean you're superficial. Fashion, like any other human activity and ultimately the life itself is what you make of it. Bringing fashion and philantrophy together (as Donna Karan did in Haiti) can transform life for the better for so many people and there is nothing superficial about it. Even more important, don't let yourself label yourself. Even if we are not always what we believe what we are we do tend to become what we believe we are.

One of April's unpublished outfits and the novel