My usual daily activity, ‘graphic reproâ, in secondary school, sees me juggling quantities and deadlines, and is quite reliant on certainties* and specifics. Design new branded pages for page 1-7, change all the words âcheeseâ to say âchocolateâ on page 21, replace questions 4-7 with the attached, and produce 10 sets of 33, A3 folded to A4 saddle-stitched booklets, delivered to Room 2.12, for 5pm tomorrow.
It’s good to have a break from the certainties.
*Having said that sometimes a little mind reading is required #YouKnowWhoYouAre đ It’s all good.
Iâve recently read a few good books, and we’ve also seen a few good films. The stories drew me into their worlds, their characters, their relationships and emotions. Things resonated, and maybe caused perceptions to shift a tad.
It is said âTo tell a story is to cast a spellâŚâ.
âgo, said the bird: human kind cannot bear very much reality.â T.S. Eliot
We all love a bit of certainty, where would we be without it?
It’s been said before, we seek patterns, routines, shapes, forms, to make meaning from the ambiguity around us. Spells. Just words will do. Two words will form an idea. A harmony and a rhythm will shape a feeling. “April, in Paris, they said nothing, but ascended, pivoted, and pirouetted⌠with minds and hearts full…”
Yet⌠the ever-present ideas, tintinnabuli, reverberating in our consciousness are rarely enough, the resolutions are just glimpses of certainty⌠we do need to make space for the ambiguous gaps in between, the pauses, the still points, the unsignified, the reality.
To quote a line from a recent film, âserenity is something you get when you stop wishingâŚâ âSound of Metalâ 2019
And a line from a recent book, âHis decision to live small made him larger than life.â âTheo of Goldenâ by Allen Levi
Here’s to a little ambiguous incertitude.
But, yes, Iâm seeking the next good story.
Jules P Richards 