Monday, May 31, 2010

Pink Truth MSKR 2010 (revisited)


PinkTruth
Originally uploaded by Crafty Andy
08/11/2013  I had to come back and revisit this post.  What happened to me at the MSKR 2010? What made this experience so bad?  I will tell you everything about what happened, well almost everything.  There was a participant at the retreat that did not want his picture taken.  I asked who this person was so that I could avoid taking his picture, the facilitator refused to tell me who the person was.  There were two occasions in which I tried to take pictures and the facilitator was telling me, as he follow me around, that I could not take the picture , because the individual was in the group I was aiming my camera at.  Mind you that I asked that  if anyone did  not want their picture taken to let me know or to get out of the picture. No one said anything.  I could care less the reason why this person did not want his picture taken, I was going to completely respect that.  What bothered me was that the facilitator was a real dick ,and in my opinion trying to play a stupid mind game with me.  I was ready to take a taxi and come back home that very night.  I was furious and decided to chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo all night.  I avoided making a scene with lots of drama, and decided the hell with it and stayed in my room chanting. I boycotted the show and tell, there was no way I could  take any pictures this way.   Another point was the place was dirty, no one cleaned the chest of drawers that we were supposed to use.  There are no locks on the doors, and some of the staff were very unfriendly,  but these were less of a problem than having someone playing a stupid mind game with me. Later on, after I boycotted the Show and Tell , he revealed to me who was the person that did not want their photo taken.  I though it was too late, but appreciated his honesty, but I told him he was an idiot.  How can you tell someone and guarantee that there will be no pictures taken. In the end, I told the facilitator that I really did not care why the person did not want their picture taken. Believe  me, if you are in a public place and you don't want your picture taken, stay home, you are not Madonna or the Prince of Wales. In the end the responsibility of having a good time was mine, but the facilitator did not make it easy for me or the person with a privacy issue.  He should have refused accepting that kind of responsibility  which was hard to be enforced. I just wanted to revisit and share , clarify the story of this pink triangle and what I did not say before. One thing is for sure, I will never let something like this happen again.  I think the facilitator made a big mistake.  He put himself in a very tricky situation, I really did not feel comfortable taking pictures any more and to this day it bothers me how I overreacted for nothing.  There were lots of people taking pictures, I felt singled out even though I was not really singled out, I was embarrassed and felt like I was being treated like a child.  The facilitator has always been a friend,but he really disappointed me that weekend. The following paragraphs is what I wrote then and I have updated the posting  as of 08/11/2013.

I went to the East Coast Men's Knitting Retreat 2010. I may be posting some pictures later on , but it s not going to be today I don't know if it is going to be sometime this week or never. I have posted some pictures on Flickr, feel free to look. If I had taken your picture and you did not want it taken and you did not speak up when I asked, twice mind you, you can still get your picture taken off the public sites, just sent me a personal e-mail. I do not need to know why you want it taken off, it is your choice and I will respect it. They say a picture is worth a thousands words, you got my picture I can not say a word.

The MSKR 2010 was the worst experience I have ever had in a retreat, that is for sure. Unless there are improvements on the venue I will not be visiting my brothers on the East Coast Any time soon. Don't let my experience, which is personal create a bad impression of the venue.  I did not expect to have any of the issues I encountered , and I definitely did not know how to handle it. So if you have ever been in a situation like that there are two or three  ways you can handle it, hopefully things will improve and they are improving from the feedback of my experience.

 
Thanks for stopping by.

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