You've got to accentuate the positive,
Eliminate the negative,
Latch on to the affirmative,
And don't mess with Mister In-Between!
--Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen from the
hit song, Accentuate the Positive
From book entitled, Invisible Armor: Protecting Your Personal Energy by Thomas A. Hensel
Last Tuesday I went to our camera club's Christmas party and had a fairly good time. Why only "fairly good?" Because of some innane banter I chanced to have with a few folks. When one goes out, especially to a holiday or festive affair, one expects to laugh, schmooze, and engage in lighthearted party-type conversations. Right? Well, one would think.
The table I was at had three men and three women at it, and we all chatted amicably. Until, that is, I mentioned the photojournalist's talk we had all seen the night before. I mentioned that some of his photos weren't to my liking and cited his very first photo, of a three year old with his pants down reaching up to flush a toilet in a public urinal. Maybe I shouldn't have even started this line of conversation, maybe it was my fault when one of the guys shot back, "Oh yeah, I saw a guy photographing piles of poop." Not to be outdone, the next guy trumped his remark with, "A photographer I know showed slides of road kill."
What was this turning into, a contest to see who could come up with the grossest images at the dinner table? As I said, I probably shouldn't've even mentioned not liking this guy's work, as the conversation took a turn for the visually worse, and I lost my appetite for the chocolate pudding cake I had been enjoying!
If all that wasn't bad enough, I went on to chat with another fellow camera club buddy who, somehow, got onto how a fraternity hazing prank exploded in his face and caught his whole body on fire! He was playing the role of Merlin, asking all new pledges to stick their heads over a bowl of highly flammable chemicals when, suddenly, he was alone in the room tanking up by adding more chemicals to the bowl when, POUF, it exploded back on him!
As he was telling me this, I had felt a mix of shock, disgust, and no prank goes unpunished, that is, the pransker usually gets his comeuppance, too, (you jerk!) But I digress. . . the point being, is this holiday fun? Appropriate banter and merriment at a Christmas party? I think not! After such an array of visually disgusting cantations, I collected my Corningware dish and left. Such was the camera club's Christmas party 2009.
In getting back to the above quote, I think it's a good idea to stick to positive conversations most of the time, let alone at holiday gatherings. Be interested and interesting. Listen carefully and add something light and fun. Be the kind of person you'd like to chat with, and be there mindfully and with good cheer. Time is of the essence, and we all only have a finite amount if it. So choose wisely. Your friends, your plans, your conversations. For, in a moment, they'll all be gone---POUF!
