As usual, so much that will bounce around my mind for days. So much...
This: "I couldn’t take a picture that made me feel anything about the snow—which I love—that was greater than what I felt just looking at the actual snow."
I love the lack of modern-style guilt here. The refusal to think "but I shouldn't be selfish! I should share it with *waves hands* you know, other people, I don't know who but someone!" Which surely is a microaggression against the self, a little "you? Your don't deserve THIS!" self-talk. And it's always so wrong. We deserve the moment (plus, we're the best-placed person to get the most from it). The world can take its judgemental negative connotations of this and stick them where the sun doesn't shine*.
The masks are haunting me right now and I don't see enough talk about what to do with them. They're everywhere here as roadside litter, and they're not going anywhere - or presumably they are, namely, the rubbish bins, and into landfills to take decades to break down. It's grim to think about. I wish I knew what was going to be done. I'm sure there are grassroots upcycling efforts springing up here and there ("fancy a quilt made of masks? Whaddayamean no?", but it's a drop in the ocean, surely? I can see these turning into a horrific problem...
My issue with community, as it's used in business & startup terms is that everyone is being Copernican. It's a community around *them*, with them being the focus. Whereas connection to me suggests something less obviously having a centre (and therefore the same being true with a periphery). A forest is connected. Everywhere is a sort of middle and a sort of edge, a bit? I prefer thinking of "community" like that, including with people following my own work. Being aware that in many of the stories springing up on the space I'm nurturing, I'm not Player One, I'm a support character, and that's good and right and something to enjoy. Proper connecting.
I'm writing another essay in your comments again. Please stop, Mike. Stop now.
As usual, so much that will bounce around my mind for days. So much...
This: "I couldn’t take a picture that made me feel anything about the snow—which I love—that was greater than what I felt just looking at the actual snow."
I love the lack of modern-style guilt here. The refusal to think "but I shouldn't be selfish! I should share it with *waves hands* you know, other people, I don't know who but someone!" Which surely is a microaggression against the self, a little "you? Your don't deserve THIS!" self-talk. And it's always so wrong. We deserve the moment (plus, we're the best-placed person to get the most from it). The world can take its judgemental negative connotations of this and stick them where the sun doesn't shine*.
The masks are haunting me right now and I don't see enough talk about what to do with them. They're everywhere here as roadside litter, and they're not going anywhere - or presumably they are, namely, the rubbish bins, and into landfills to take decades to break down. It's grim to think about. I wish I knew what was going to be done. I'm sure there are grassroots upcycling efforts springing up here and there ("fancy a quilt made of masks? Whaddayamean no?", but it's a drop in the ocean, surely? I can see these turning into a horrific problem...
My issue with community, as it's used in business & startup terms is that everyone is being Copernican. It's a community around *them*, with them being the focus. Whereas connection to me suggests something less obviously having a centre (and therefore the same being true with a periphery). A forest is connected. Everywhere is a sort of middle and a sort of edge, a bit? I prefer thinking of "community" like that, including with people following my own work. Being aware that in many of the stories springing up on the space I'm nurturing, I'm not Player One, I'm a support character, and that's good and right and something to enjoy. Proper connecting.
I'm writing another essay in your comments again. Please stop, Mike. Stop now.
*Wales.
I loved Savoy's book; it was riveting.