Nine by One
Nine things I found, learned or enjoyed this week
Art work of the week - Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds, Martin Johnson Heade, 1871
There’s a weird beauty to Heade’s painting, the colours so vivid, like a window into a new, brighter, even lurid world. I went for a walk along the river that runs through my town after a day trapped at my desk. I was feeling out of sorts and still ruminating about my day. Then after about 30 minutes I felt myself begin to calm and notice what was around me. It was early evening and I realised there were lots of butterflies, so I stopped, and tried to name them. They were peacocks, and the four little eyes on their wings made me think of this painting. Pale sunlight refracted through a kaleidoscope. Beautiful.
An article that made me think - Is this river alive? Robert Macfarlane on the lives, deaths and rights of our rivers
What if the river that runs through my town is alive? The river Usk and the valley it runs has been home for me the last ten years. I often walk along the river banks taking in the quiet beauty. A traditional Welsh poem, Mi Gerddaf Gyda Thi, encapsulates the feeling I get when I’m fully absorbed:
“I will walk with you across distant paths
Flowers and dreams will bless our journey
Into your eyes I will gaze and holding your hand
I will walk with you whatever may come"The lines are often used at weddings, but I also feel profoundly paired with this river. Sadly, the Usk is now threatened by pollution, particularly overflows that discharge raw sewage into the river. I can’t help thinking McFarlane has a point. If we gave the river personality, saw it as alive, would we still treat it this way?
Something I learned this week - I live in a WEIRD society
Happiness is surprisingly hard to measure. Reading this article, I discovered that social scientists define the society I live in as Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD). Never a truer word, eh? Still I was struck by one of the central conclusions:
“In Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies, the pursuit of happiness often takes center stage.”
The pursuit of happiness, an entirely subjective perspective. Instead of pursuing happiness, why don’t we stay in the moment and look for contentment there?
Something happy - Sir David Attenborough is 99
When I shared this article with a friend, they shot back a quick ‘Oh no!’ assuming he had died. No, he has not, thank goodness. Instead this article includes birthday wishes and reflection on the great man, everyone from Obama to Billie Eilish. Sir David has been a constant, wise and enthusiastic (for nature) presence all my life. Reading this article I was moved to tears. Truly, he is a hero.
Where I found hope this week - We’ve been thinking about love all wrong
Suleika Jaooud writes about what illness taught her about true friendship. She tells the story of her own cancer journey and that of an older fellow cancer patient, Anjali, she met while undergoing chemotherapy. Present at Anjali’s death, she movingly describes the deep friendship they developed, and the grace she felt attending Anjali’s passing. She talks about ‘the radical power of seeing, understanding, and showing up for another human.’ She says the lesson she took was learning to ‘Be fully present, listen, give of yourself to another human.’
Something inspiring - Spring!
We’ve been experiencing unusually settled weather in Usk. The days have been sunny and if not always warm, at least an invitation to get outside and walk. Everywhere I look spring is wildly in flow. The hawthorns are so heavy with blossom it looks like it snowed. On the river banks, wild flowers are doing their thing. Red clover and buttercups everywhere. The rich green grass sprinkled with jewels.
A poem to enjoy - Eulogy for the Cantina on Chapel St. that’s transformed into another bank by Kinsale Drake
Poetry doesn’t have to be complicated. I love the misdirection in the poem’s title though, as the poem is actually set in a Taco Bell, the poet remembering her mother. The poetry is in the memory of another time, a reminder that time passes and we move forward until the end, eventually leaving those we love behind.
‘ … We are all here
for the same reasons, aching toward
what we desire most: a drunken gaze,
shaking the winter from our hair,
remembering a mother’s taco shells
and refusing to wipe away the grease.’
A Substack to savour - Jane Hirshfield
A poet I admire, Hirshfield’s articles are usually informative and open doors to poets I haven’t read. In her piece on the multiple crises we face right now she asks: How is it a few ink marks on a page, a few words that stay in memory to be drawn from, can feel like a well of clear water; sometimes, a life rope? We need handholds, ways to grip a sense of normality, norms we trust in, living as we do through these times of tumult. I’m looking forward to her next article which she says will discuss her belief in four qualities of feeling that I find seed-strengths in times of duress: tenderness, courage, humility, resilience.
Music I enjoyed this week - Three + by Four Tet
When I’m working I like to have music playing in the background. Often this turns into aural wallpaper, and frankly I’m not listening. I started this way with Four Tet. But then I started to wake up to the rhythms in their music. Beats (rhythms) are why I also love the Endel app. The science behind the app’s manifesto is impressive. It seems sound has a profound impact on us, affecting basic physiological responses, like heart rate and blood pressure, as well as concentration, and sleep quality. Back to Four Tet: the track that fully captured my attention and made me listen properly to their music is Three Drums. There’s something elegiac about the track that’s hard to put my finger on, but like Wodwo, I’ll go on looking.