You Are All Winners
The Story of Humanity Unofficial Challenge
The Challenge was to write the story of humanity and / or planet earth in exactly 50 words.
I had great fun reading all of your creative takes on the prompt.
I think this challenge revealed something far deeper about all of us. The emotions we are harbouring when asked to consider our beginnings.
As with all questions (how did we begin, how did we come to be here) there is no correct answer. Everything in this life comes down to interpretation through our senses and beliefs formed from those interpretations.
We interpret information left behind by ancestors, we analyse it, we create conclusions from it and we decide what to believe.
We have people who have dedicated their lives to ‘proving’ certain beliefs they hold through the seeking of material ‘evidence’ - determined to have something solid to hold on to in a life that is ever changing and seemingly transient.
Determined to have something to believe in.
Perhaps faith is the most necessary fundamental component of healthy life. We can endure great hardship with faith. Whether that faith is simply invested into knowing that situation will eventually pass, or faith in a structured belief system (academia, religion, science, etc) it doesn’t seem to matter.
So long as we have faith, we have hope. So long as we have hope, we can optimise our emotional body. In optimising our emotional body, we can optimise our physical body.
In becoming fully optimised, we become naturally optimistic.
And that’s when living truly begins.
For all we know, we are actually nothing more than AI robots with lots of pre-programming (history).
When you woke up this morning, how can you know that you weren’t just activated?
How can you know for sure that you weren’t just turned on like a computer?
Pre-installed with beliefs and memories which convince you to hold certain judgements and opinions and promote you to behave in certain ways.
How can you know that everything around you, the ‘evidence’ of history and the past, isn’t just Virtual Reality?
Look at how easily we can create AI video and photos of anyone and anything in anyplace. We have the technological capability to completely fabricate a from ‘birth’ history of a human.
Think ‘The Truman Show’ meets ‘Passengers’ meets ‘Matrix’ meets ‘Inception’ meets ‘Gamer’.
How can you know that’s not what life is?
When you fully entertain this debate - you will realise with absolute certainty, that you cannot know for sure. Ironically, the only thing we can know for sure - is that we know nothing for sure.
But, if we assume the truth lies (truth lies 😅) somewhere in the middle of our shared collective beliefs about the origins of us… and take the mainstream views….
We return to mental safety and back to the challenge entries 😉 Which I now have to re read and choose my favourites from!
I truly did enjoy all of them and I mean it from my heart when I say you are all winners. You are. Every single time you try at anything you are winning.
Give this list of entries to 1000 different people to judge? Every single entry here would be highlighted as someone’s favourite.
Placing in a contest is all about the judges emotional state at the time of judging. If what you wrote just so happens to resonate with them at that precise time, you will be chosen.
If not? Then not!
Writing and being chosen as a winner (in any fair, unrigged contest) really does take an equal blend of skill and luck.
I say this because too many of us fall into the trap of thinking it’s all about skill and this is absolutely untrue. The variables involved which are completely out of your control are arguably equal to those which are within it.
For example, you could write the most emotive story about a subject which a judge is personally triggered by and rejecting of.
The rejection is then not about your story, it’s about the judge rejecting their own emotional trauma.
Which of course no one cares about in my super low stakes ‘competition’.
This is written as a reminder to you for when the stakes feel higher and you are being hard on yourself.
So!
Without further tangent and rambling…
Let’s unveil my personal favourites starting from third place.
Rachel Deeming’s entry had such a sweet and wistful softness to it that I loved. Some of us try to really cram when we are given a word limit and the result can feel stressful.
Rachel scripted her entry with such an impressive casual air to it whilst managing to still create so much story and inspire philosophical thinking in the 50 word limit.
It had to make the shortlist!
✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
In second place I have put Gabriel Huizenga’s While Watching The World.
It feels like a telling off. A sharp reminder of the emotional fragility of the human being and the reinforcement of what we all, deep down, know to be true - that softness and love are all that truly matter.
Kindness and gentleness, creating safety for others to grow and awaken at their own pace, is far more powerful than screaming truth in their face.
When fear takes over, when urgency creeps in - we all forget this.
This is why I especially love this entry. It screams of truth. It takes a dig at the ego. But it does so in a rather calm and considered way which I can’t help but admire.
Christy Munson pitched really wonderful entries to this challenge. All of them were truly brilliant and spoke to me - but this one stood out the most.
I mean, for a start, it’s rhyming poetry!
If Christy knows her judge, she would know that I am a big fan of rhyming poems! Especially those which pack a powerful message and can be read to have a thousand different interpretations - which all just so happen to be brilliant.
It would take me an essay to write about the many ways I interpret this and why it resonates so much with me.
I will not.
Instead I shall let you read it and interpret for yourself.
I would really love to know which were your favourites! Please let me know in the comments if one of the many entries stood out to you. Which would you have chosen to crown in first place?
Full List of entries available here
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Comments (9)
Thanks for the great challenge and good read… didn’t envy you judging all the entries 😵💫🧐🙃
This was such a fun challenge and I am glad I was able to partake in it. So hard to pick a winner but I do like you choices all were great
Ah, thanks, Kayleigh. Judgement is always subjective but I am gratified to be chosen and placed. Warmed my heart. Congrats to everyone too, especially Gabriel and Christy.
I am so humbled and honored to have placed; thank you all for your reads and encouragement, and thank you again Kayleigh for creating this beautiful challenge! The reflections above on the subjective selection that happens in challenges like this are so insightful and true. What a rich gift it is to share in this dear, thoughtful community <3 I loved every single piece that I read from this challenge! Some personal favorites are D.K. Shepard's deeply reflective and hopeful tryptic of pieces, starting with "The Fall." https://vocal.media/fiction/the-fall-tj1az0c8l Angie the Archivist's "Should I?" is another favorite, with its gorgeous imagery and playfully perilous conclusion. https://vocal.media/fiction/should-i-dq1rz01gn Finally, I really enjoyed Paul Stewart's "01.02.2080 - The End." A wonderfully concerning, extraterrestrial perspective on humanity's central problem! https://vocal.media/fiction/01-01-2080-the-end Really, truly, wonderful job to everyone here! Cheers, all :)
I enjoyed all of the entries. Here are a few of my favs in no order: JBaz's Such a tiny thing inspires me and moves me. And JBaz's Garden of Eden literally made me laugh out loud! Three entries truly made me think: Gabriel's While Watching the World, Hannah's Brief histories, and Kayleigh's The Story of Humanity. Also, shout out to Kayleigh for the cover art and final line! mortal... ha! Rachel's Little Blue Orb has me laughing, musing, and high five'ing the air in solidarity. Why indeed! Paul's In Meam Commemorationem had me on edge. LOL. Great read. D.K.'s The Hope is another one that makes me think and especially connects to difficulties my family and I are working through (deaths, hospitalizations, etc.). There must be more than tragedy! Of my own pieces, I resonate most with god's prayer, partly because I'm an atheist who wrote a piece called god's prayer, but also for the content. These words came in a continuous thread as if not by my own hand and I dig the vibe. For whatever reason, or no reason perhaps, it touches me emotionally.
I am over the moon to have been selected first among equals. But far more importantly, I am delighted to have read all the AMAZING entries. And thank you so very much to Kayleigh for the incredible prompt in the first place. "Placing in a contest is all about the judges emotional state at the time of judging. If what you wrote just so happens to resonate with them at that precise time, you will be chosen." --Kayleigh To know that my writing (that any of our writing) resonates at any time with anyone out there is the best prize ever. That's what sustains our writer selves. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
I like the ones a lot that you picked out. Gabriel's was one of my favourites and all of Christy's were stellar (new fan of her work here, recently subscribed) Rachel has such a deft hand with these mini pieces...I also loved Lamar's and loathed it but that's good because it made me nice and angry as it should. Oh...just way too many to mention lol, Kayleigh! Well done on putting this altogether. I had a whole lot of fun writing my pieces and I have enjoyed reading the others I've had a chance to!
"Placing in a contest is all about the judges emotional state at the time of judging. If what you wrote just so happens to resonate with them at that precise time, you will be chosen." That is the ultimate truth and I wish more people would realise it! Congratulations to Rachel, Gabriel and Christy! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
Thank you for sharing the results in your story, most appreciated