Here’s what confusion means to Pixabay, and what this can tell us about how we ought to live our lives. (Okay, not really.)
Pixabay is my favourite stock image website, possibly because it’s the only one whose name I can remember.
I use a lot of stock images, and some of them are brilliant. Most of the ones with people, however, are not.
“Yes, I am an actor being paid to pretend to type on this laptop/stare dreamily into space/look appropriately horrified at the size of that hamburger.”
If you’re after an image of a sunset or a forest or a mountain, Pixabay can help you.
What surprises me is what it comes up with when you search for an abstract concept. Fear. Hope. Pain. (Why, oh why does “pain” come up with what looks like chocolate inside a croissant?)
I have a (probably terrible) theory that analysing the images that come up for such concepts will yield deep insights into the human psyche.
Alternatively, it might make me feel weird and a bit itchy.
Still, we should test it out. Today’s word is “confusion”.
The wrong tools
What impresses me about this image is how far in the bolt(?) screw(?) has been driven by the hammer.
We could take from this image, “Use the right tools or you’ll look like an idiot and not get your nail in”, but we wouldn’t be looking deep enough.
I think the message is this: “It doesn’t matter what tools you have. Use enough force and persistence and you will defeat that wood.”**
Some people take this approach to life. They might be better off switching their wrench for a hammer.
The confused animal
This is one bewildered looking deer.
Perhaps it can’t understand the behaviour of its in-laws. Not many people (or deer) can.
This picture tells us confusion is not a human construct. Animals have been stumbling confused across the earth since the first dinosaur incinerated the single-celled organisms that came before it.
(Or was that the first dragon? Sometimes I get confused.)
We need to stop trying avoid confusion, and instead embrace it as a natural part of existence.
Or perhaps go back to bed.
Traffic light
A traffic light gives us multiple conflicting instructions and we break down in confusion.
There’s only one possible interpretation: we pay too much attention to what others tell us.
“Don’t run with scissors.”
What if I’m in a hurry to get somewhere with my scissors? I could be running to save the world from red tape. Until you know, don’t judge.
“Don’t read too late on a school night.”
Easy for you to say. You’re not the one leaving the characters stranded on a sinking ship that’s on fire and being circled by man-eating sharks in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in winter. Sometimes reading until 3am is the lesser of two evils.
Be an independent thinker. Leap without looking.
A tiny lost fellow
I have no idea who this little guy is, but he’s adorable and he looks very sad.
When you’re not as tall as a daisy (one of my favourite flowers), the world must be a bewildering place.
Also, it’s hard to walk when you have only one foot.
** No innuendo intended.
What represents confusion to you?
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Shortly after buying our condo, I finally purchased a power drill/driver. It turns out this is a very handy tool which I often overlook due to years of not having one. I only mention it because I often find myself using a hammer to get a screw started, and then laboriously finishing with an old-fashioned screw driver. It’s a real struggle.
It’s generally not until I’m nearly done with the job that my husband asks “Why didn’t you use the drill?”
And then I look just like that deer. . . hopelessly confused. So I’m embarrassed to admit it, but this one hit a bit close to home. 😜
I promise I didn’t secretly scheme with your husband in the writing of this post. 😉
I think I might have a power drill. I might even have two… The fact I don’t know probably says something about how often I do things around the house.
The phrase “bit itchy” made me feel like I was looking at one of those fold-ins from Mad Magazine.
In the picture with the hammer and the crescent wrench, I felt like the wrench had heard all the pounding and it had come over to tell the hammer, “That’s not how you do that, silly!” but it doesn’t realize that it’s not the right tool either.
I’m not familiar with Mad Magazine, but it’s mad and I’m not sure I need more of that, so…
Haha, that’s an awesome interpretation. Maybe related to something about glass houses?
Haha! Too funny. I love the captions…
Thanks! 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Sometimes the image choices are sooo bizarre. I go looking for something simple and I’m like “really? you thought this was appropriate?!”.
Totally! Some I think would make great story prompts… if I were into that kind of thing.
I like Pixabay too, but you’re right that their people pictures…not so much. And you do have to be a creative searcher!
Thankfully we’re writers so we must be creative people. Right? Right?
“(Why, oh why does “pain” come up with what looks like chocolate inside a croissant?)”
Pain = French for bread
Pain au chocolate = chocolate croissant
Apologies if you knew that and were being funny. My humour detector may be faulty. 😀
That makes so much more sense than what I was thinking!
You know those pictorial instructions that come with things you’re supposed to assemble at home? Those are confusion personified. Or paperfied . . .
Yes! The most recent one of these I tried to put together there were about five different types of screw. Each came with a code in the packaging and a code in the little pictures you’re supposed to follow to put it together. Only the codes weren’t the same – there was a concordance table you had to use to figure out which code meant the same thing as which other code. I’m looking at this and shouting, “Why?!”
I love Pixabay too! But they’re sadly lacking in dragon photos, and you come across a surprising amount of scantily dressed women when searching for dragons. And cats.
True. Pixabay should definitely have more dragon photos. I usually settle for reptiles of some sort in my dragon posts, but if it doesn’t have wings and breathe fire and can’t swallow a man in one gulp it’s just not the same.