The Art of Editing
I have never considered myself an editor. I'm not great at little details. Well at least not in English class. But I've been noticing something...We edit ALL THE TIME!!!
I was watching Project Runway and several times a designer has been told you need to edit, edit, edit. Meaning refine the look, look for what matters and eliminate the rest. On American Idol, I remember artists being told to stick with the melody. The melody matters. So often they would go on with vocal licks and they would lose the integrity of the song. When I was in acting class I was told to stop directing myself, in other words, editing my actions before I would engage in a scene.
Ok so artists edit, movies are edited, we edit in papers, my son-in-law is a technical editor. Editing is all around us. But it wasn't until recently that I realized the importance of editing correctly in our every day lives. And it truly is an art.
My daughter had a baby a month ago. She's beautiful! She's healthy and perfect. But lost weight, which is normal, when leaving the hospital. And when we got her home, she was struggling with nursing. Again, which is not unusual. But of course as a new sleep deprived mother, my daughter was beside herself and here came the onslaught of well wishers and advice. I took her to a lactation consultant, knowing it had really helped me. After the appointment my daughter could only focus on what the consultant suggested she could change. She focused on the negative and left out (edited) the essential parts like "until this time" or "do this AND that", "maybe this would make it easier". And with each piece of advice she could only see the hard and what she was doing wrong. Realizing this I quickly tried to reedit in those essentials that changed the meaning of what was said. Over and over again with every well meaning piece of advice.
My other daughter is in the middle of a sticky situation at her university. And this editing issue came to bite me. I believe in my daughter and I am ALWAYS always on her side. She and I have been in discussions with the dean who was saying things I knew could be difficult for my daughter to hear, so when I approached her with my intention being to protect and prepare her for what he might say, she immediately edited my words to be against her. For a week she was distant and angry with me and I couldn't understand why. Finally she told me I was not on her side. Where did she get that idea? Nothing I said or felt was against her...I thought. But she edited everything to her point of view and that included me being against her.
How often do we do this? Is this the cause of so much misunderstanding, confusion and even hate?
Editing is an art. Can we look at things objectively? Can we approach one another with love, patience and compassion? What if we edited every situation, every conversation with that objective? The world would truly be a more refined and happier place. Even imagining that outfit or song that is perfectly edited I have a sense of peace. How much peace can we create just by editing our thoughts and reactions. Ahhh...something to think about. Something to work on.
I was watching Project Runway and several times a designer has been told you need to edit, edit, edit. Meaning refine the look, look for what matters and eliminate the rest. On American Idol, I remember artists being told to stick with the melody. The melody matters. So often they would go on with vocal licks and they would lose the integrity of the song. When I was in acting class I was told to stop directing myself, in other words, editing my actions before I would engage in a scene.
Ok so artists edit, movies are edited, we edit in papers, my son-in-law is a technical editor. Editing is all around us. But it wasn't until recently that I realized the importance of editing correctly in our every day lives. And it truly is an art.
My daughter had a baby a month ago. She's beautiful! She's healthy and perfect. But lost weight, which is normal, when leaving the hospital. And when we got her home, she was struggling with nursing. Again, which is not unusual. But of course as a new sleep deprived mother, my daughter was beside herself and here came the onslaught of well wishers and advice. I took her to a lactation consultant, knowing it had really helped me. After the appointment my daughter could only focus on what the consultant suggested she could change. She focused on the negative and left out (edited) the essential parts like "until this time" or "do this AND that", "maybe this would make it easier". And with each piece of advice she could only see the hard and what she was doing wrong. Realizing this I quickly tried to reedit in those essentials that changed the meaning of what was said. Over and over again with every well meaning piece of advice.
My other daughter is in the middle of a sticky situation at her university. And this editing issue came to bite me. I believe in my daughter and I am ALWAYS always on her side. She and I have been in discussions with the dean who was saying things I knew could be difficult for my daughter to hear, so when I approached her with my intention being to protect and prepare her for what he might say, she immediately edited my words to be against her. For a week she was distant and angry with me and I couldn't understand why. Finally she told me I was not on her side. Where did she get that idea? Nothing I said or felt was against her...I thought. But she edited everything to her point of view and that included me being against her.
How often do we do this? Is this the cause of so much misunderstanding, confusion and even hate?
Editing is an art. Can we look at things objectively? Can we approach one another with love, patience and compassion? What if we edited every situation, every conversation with that objective? The world would truly be a more refined and happier place. Even imagining that outfit or song that is perfectly edited I have a sense of peace. How much peace can we create just by editing our thoughts and reactions. Ahhh...something to think about. Something to work on.
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