Author: Jackie Pick

Jackie Pick is a former teacher and current writer living in the Chicago area. She is a contributing author to multiple anthologies, including Multiples Illuminated, So Glad They Told Me: Women Get Real about Motherhood, Here in the Middle, as well as the and the literary magazines The Sun and Selfish. She received Honorable Mention from the Mark Twain House and Museum for her entry in the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Competition. Jackie is a contributing writer at Humor Outcasts, and her essays have been featured on various online sites including McSweeney's, Belladonna Comedy, Mamalode, The HerStories Project, and Scary Mommy. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Jackie is co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning short film Fixed Up, and a proud member of the 2017 Chicago cast of Listen To Your Mother.

F-Stop Prayer. Day 5 of 100 Days of Writing

O most Glorious St. Aperture,

Faithful Servant of iGadgetry and our Very Right Instagram

Grant me good angles,
Favorable lighting,
And an expression that doesn’t cause loved ones suffering as they wonder if I’ve been on a bender.
Guide me in judicious cropping.
Intercede for me that I may gently Photoshop evidence of  living, good parenting, and bad decisions,
Without losing perspective or character.

Let my smile be bright and free of lunch remnants.
Let my pose be neither Kardashian nor Beckham.
If it be Divine Will that I Walk the Heavenly Red Carpet, flanked by photographers both Divine and Amateur,
Let me not be Chicken Wing-ed
And let my belly be perfectly perpendicular to Heaven and not spilleth over due to Holy Generosity
And cakes.

And if it comes to be that
For reasons mysterious and mighty,
My likeness is shared with people
Be it of my own free will or the free will of others,

Let me not apologize for my lack of
Makeup,
Hairbrush,
Supernatural tan-in-a-can,
Housekeeping
Or any other Thing which makes me Human.

Help me resist the temptation to post photos of my every meal or fellow traveler or fellow traveler’s meals.

And forgive the young girls their Duck Faces.
They know not what they do.