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Important Female Trivia: Mary Blair and the 5 Legged Goat

So this isn't a feminist post... this is a little appreciation about a woman that I admire and think is interesting. It's just kind of a fun fact that I wanted to give some perspective on... so I thought this would be a good blog to put here.

I saw this video by my favorite youtuber, Justin Scarred and he is on vacation in Florida right now and he stopped by Walt Disney World's Contemporary resort. I haven't been to Disney World since 2009 and I don't think I've ever spent much time at the Contemporary, but he pointed out a mural by artist Mary Blair. Mary Blair is the same artist who designed the look of It's A Small World and she obviously painted a similar looking mural that is hanging in The Contemporary.

In the Mural there is a 5 legged goat... which was not done by accident. Mary Blair included one Goat with 5 legs because she was following a principle in Islamic art that said no man made creation can be perfect, only God can be perfect. So she actually made the mistake herself because she didn't want it to be perfect.

To me... this concept is mind blowing. I got some constructive... but unwelcome feedback the other day. The person was being very polite, but I was not asking for feedback on something. I do not know this person, this person does not know me... and this person isn't perfect as far as I can tell either. And he or she complimented me on something but then gave a criticism on something that matters a lot to me. This person has no idea that this matters to me because she... or he does not know me and has never talked to me other than to say something positive with a negative spin or vice versa.

And now I'm double checking everything, taking my time on this particular thing and freaking out about it because I'm scared this one person that I don't know won't like me for it... and I wouldn't even call myself a perfectionist.

I don't even like sharing my blogs with people that I know that much because I am embarrassed about what people will say and how they'll react. It's like when I said I wanted to be a comedian when I was in high school and the guy that I liked said "You can't be a comedian." Joke is on him now cause I have a lot of dirt on him to be used as material some point in my life... so thanks for that.

Anyway back to my feelings or whatever... lol. It just kind of baffles my mind that there's a whole movement based on things not being perfect. And these aren't just things that no one will see like my blogs... these are actual artworks that will be around for the whole world to see forever. And in Mary Blair's case- its in the one place people are likely to see it- right by the monorail! So every day several people are like "Hey this goat has 5 legs. What's up with that, Mary Blair?" So it's just crazy for me to think something that really is so small matters so much to me. Not that it shouldn't matter to me... but people make mistakes and I don't have to be perfect to please one person. I don't even know if that would please me... so yeah.

And even though this isn't necessarily a feminist thing- it's a brave accomplishment of a woman that has now had an impact on my life... and can probably help others. So, hopefully this helps someone somehow with something. I'll have something a little more feminist-y on Tuesday I think... something Beauty and The Beast Related.

Byeee!
-Shannon

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