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The biggest arts festival in the world! Every street has an array of faces with star ratings slapped across them. And I don鈥檛 just mean posters: some wacky performers will literally walk around with reviews taped to their heads 鈥� Look where you鈥檙e going!

It鈥檚 busy, so shows get creative. A comedian鈥檚 one-star review appeared on his poster as 鈥淎 star!鈥�, as if one was born, rather than rated out of five. At my first Fringe in 鈥�98, a sketch troupe quoted a newspaper on their posters 鈥� 鈥淭hey can perform!鈥�, from the longer sentence 鈥渢hey鈥檙e fundraising so that they can perform at the Edinburgh Festival.鈥� After my show too, I鈥檒l fall into the trap, scouring the papers to seek validity from others, to prove: 鈥淥ther people like what I do.鈥�

The more we turn to our screens for shows and shopping, holidays and house-buying, the more we need a quick, easy, marks-out-of-five. I鈥檓 e-hassled after buying a coffee, to review not the coffee, but how I was handed it. There鈥檚 no room for nuance 鈥� and I think overly rating things might be over-rated. It creates a world of constant comparison. I can鈥檛 just enjoy my holiday; I must know that it rates highest of all other holidays in this price range. That familiar holiday advisory site actually rates Mount Everest, 4.8 stars out of 5. One of the 3-star reviews says 鈥淚 must admit that most of the mountains in the range all look alike鈥�. To take a natural wonder, like Everest, or my comedy show, and rate it out of 5, is really to miss the point.

St Paul wrote to the Corinthians: 鈥淲hen they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.鈥� He advised the Galatians to 鈥渢est their own actions, take pride in themselves alone, without comparing to someone else.鈥�

We鈥檙e all human. I think we all fall short of 5-star perfection 鈥� but I think my ultimate reviewer is a generous one.

In the mean time we must do our best by our standards, whether at a busy arts festival or on our umpteenth day on this 4.8-star-rated planet. Our streets are busy, and we鈥檒l get ahead, not by looking over our shoulders, but by focusing on our path ahead: looking at where we are going.

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