Day 7: Black and White Photo Challenge or, To Quote Old-School Tech: WYSIWYG

There\’s a photo challenge thing going on in social media. The idea is to post black and white photos for seven days that represent a piece of your life. It should not come with an explanation and should not contain people. You\’re supposed to tag someone else every day.I\’ve stuck with the challenge for six days but am leaving off today. This post is the last day of the challenge and I am posting a photo of me. No person tagged. Just this:Not that a wiki is gospel-truth, but a quick curiosity stroll through the interwebs on any average day will take you to one if you ask a question.It seems that the implementation of WYSIWYG (the acronym for What You See Is What You Get) technology goes back to 1974 with Xerox\’s Alto monitor. It was pumping at a fierce 72 ppi, y\’all — the new hotness of the day.So, you are probably wondering what this has to do with anything … is it yet another of my semi-famous (would that make them infamous?) rabbit trails? Not exactly but sort of.It is Diwali and quite a few of us have been chattering away in the social mediasphere about renewal, hope, light, and knowledge. I posted this snippet from a conversation I had two days ago with two friends:

It is interesting how we grow and change. Over time, we come to learn more about ourselves and make changes about how we allow people into our inner circle. We figure out what we will and will not accept. This has become more apparent, maybe because it is Diwali and along with my Hindi and Nepali friends am more conscious of renewal and positivity this week. Or maybe I am just learning more about how to heal my own soul spaces.

I had a baked sweet potato this morning for breakfast. For yesterday\’s photo challenge, I shared an image of the sprinklers on in my front yard and then spent part of the morning capturing images of my dogs framed in the doorway as they watched the rain. I then brushed the cat in between doing loads of laundry and answering student emails while downloading the latest firmware for my TV box and reviewing papers. I will go to a group archery lesson today.It\’s all me.WYSIWYG.There can be only one (remember that line?) because the multiverse would probably implode if I had an actual twin (or triplet?!) instead of just a doppelganger or two. We all have them so I just figure it\’s safer to assume there are at least two out there. But that said, as I continue to walk my path of life, I get slightly more comfortable in my skin. I don\’t just let anyone into my personal sanctuary and have, as gently as I can, moved others out of it if for no other reason than (to use Stephen Donaldson\’s term) my percipience is needed elsewhere.My point is, there is nothing else, no surprises behind the curtain or under the bed (particularly since to get under my bed you would have to be a dust mite since there is no frame to raise it off the floor …). While I might not reveal the whole truth of me to you in one fell swoop (because as Jack Nicholson once famously said, \’You can\’t handle the truth!\’), if you see me, you\’ve seen it — the that truth that is me.WYSIWIG.Rabbit trail indeed …