What made me really appreciate this assignment is the fact that the process of finding something that I believe in invited me to rethink what I personally describe as a belief. When we think about it, we use the word believe for so many things and in different contexts. One can believe in God while at the same time believe that his or her favorite sport team will make it to the playoffs this year. While both are beliefs, they are most likely to affect a person in possibly two completely different ways.
Such analysis lead me to think that a true belief is an idea/principle that has a direct impact on the way I live my life. It is personal and possibly something that I am passionated about. It is the type of thing that could get me involved in an argument, something that I have a strong opinion about.
The way men dress in general is where my fireside chat idea originated from. I strongly believe that we, men, have a hard time not only dressing well but also not dressing terribly. I still can't decide if it's a sort of curse, if it's in our genes, or if it has something to do with our North American culture but one thing sure is that most men that struggle dressing well aren't even aware of it. My belief is that there is power behind dressing well as a man. I have seen it, I have experienced it, and it makes a lot of sense to me.
From that point, I started to think next on how to transmit the way I feel about this topic without necessarily imposing it to others. Since a belief is personal, I felt that it was more appropriate to share rather than trying to convince. Following that line of thoughts, I ended up creating a double presentation. Both would be identical except for one of them I would be dressed poorly while the other one I would make sure to wear some of my best clothes. That way, I would let the audience decide and make their own opinion if dressing better really has an impact on how they perceive people. I will let them decide if the way a man dresses directly affects what no only they think of him but what they expect from him.
As simple as it may sound, this reminded me of what art is really all about. Art never really tries to force you to believe in what it represents. It's simply a creative representation of someone's belief(s). Its purpose is to invite us to ponder and think on our own. It sort of reminds me of a good movie where the end isn't entirely clear. Inception (2010) for instance never really tells us how it ends. We have to make our own decision and decide what we believe in.
