"To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks."  Poohisms are grand, aren't they?  I ran across this quote the other day while thumbing through my Pooh's Little Instruction Book, and it entered my mind just now.

Many people will often make a judgment of someone else without completely understanding the big picture, so they only see the parts and not the entirety.  To me, this can be a downfall.  It's like the three blind mice who only felt here and felt there and imagined different items when in reality it was an elephant standing before them.  If you aren't willing to wait and watch things unfold, then in essence, you are truly blind.

It's the same with bodybuilding.  If I only see my front delt, my vastus lateralis, my obliques, or my bicep femoris, then I lose sight of the whole being that will present itself on the stage one day.  Sure, I need to take a look at every detail and perfect them all, but if I only zero in on one thing and put blinders on to the rest of my physique, then I will always fall short of my goal and avoid growth, not just in the body, but in the mind.

It's like this with judgment of other people.  Sometimes we only see one particular action, but we haven't taken the time to reflect upon the decision making process that went into performing that action.  We haven't looked into the future to see where this action might lead, to allow our eyes to travel down all different roads, good and bad.  And we haven't combined this particular action with a slew of others being made at the same point in time.  This is being close minded.

I made a decision to expand my horizons and try a few new looks for my portfolio.  But this wasn't child's play.  This was not dress-up time.  This was no tea party.  Yes, I had enormous amounts of fun, and I walked away with a smile on my face, but more importantly, I walked away with pride surging in my chest, with tears in my eyes because I felt that I had begun to appreciate my body.  Isn't that what bodybuilding is ultimately about?  Appreciation of oneself?

We spend so much time putting others down for their shortcomings that we never sit back and examine our own lives and try to discover why we need to question another person's personal choices.  I guess I ask you that now.  Have you ever looked at someone and said, "What in the world made him or her do that?"  Have you gossiped about it to someone else?  I think very few of us could keep our hands in our laps on those questions.  I'm guilty of this too, but the more I break out of my shell, and the more comfortable I become in my skin, the less I feel I should judge another person's choices, for that leads to hypocriticism, which is a major difference from constructive criticism.

So again, I made the choice to do some photos that are outside my realm of normality.  And I'm pleased with the results.  If you are not, you are entitled to that opinion, but please do not judge me for my decisions.  Instead, bask in the glory that you have an opinion and you have options on this site to see so many different views of me.  And there are many.  There are so many.  Remember, yesterday I compared myself to a kaleidoscope.  So if there is one gallery you don't like, take a turn of the dial and take a new view and see a new gallery.  There's something here for everyone.  For everyone.