What I See

Sometimes you get an invitation you can’t refuse.

But before I begin, can I ask you, what do you see when you look in the mirror?

Please, just think about it. Instead of thinking ‘me’, do you see a man or a woman? Do you see a mother, a father, sister, brother, cousin, aunt, uncle? Do you see someone old or young? Do you see someone who is happy? Or sad? Or angry at the world? Do you see a writer? An artist?

The What I See Project asks this of women across the world. The project wants to provide a voice for women, whatever their circumstances, their view of themselves or their world around them.

So when they sent me an email asking if I’d take part, how could I say no? I’m a WI member (twice over), I’m a feminist (yes I used that word, no I haven’t burnt my bra, I need it too much) and I have never had a problem with opening my mouth and saying what I think (ask anyone who knows me).

But aside from those, I watched the video on the site.

What I See Project Campaign Trailer from whatiseeproject on Vimeo.

I was, to put it simply, honoured to be in the same breath as some of the women already involved. Women I admire, women who are strong, who have overcome obstacles, women who put my everyday little grumbles to shame.

So, video camera set up, piece of paper in hand, I sat down and thought about it. What do I see? My own video is linked below. But before you watch it, I want to add a little something. Once uploaded I emailed it to a friend, because I couldn’t actually watch it myself and I asked her to feed back to me. She wrote me the email below the link. I’m hoping she doesn’t mind me posting it because I think it’s very important to know that what you see when you look in the mirror is very different to what others see.

And once you’ve seen what I see, tomorrow you can see what Lori Smith sees when she looks in the mirror.

 

With thanks to Pat, here’s her email reply:

Can I tell you what I see??  Would love to do a respond I see for you!!