smurfs! i have some shocking news
a smurf? who could have possibly smurfed such a thing
——
it’s my new years resolution! which is this: my only resolution is in 2020 i want to be more materialistic.
if you read the essay i linked before, maybe you will understand what i mean.
the more i think about this theme of being materialistic, the more i realize how much i really want to engage with the world around me.
because in a way, the “materialistic” mainstream lifestyle is not materialistic at all- to me, it means life mediated by a screen, our ideals, a head in the Apple Cloud, hung up on titles, labels, commas, followers, status, clout, calories, membership, future plans, et cetera, et cetera, and detached from simple pleasures like cooking, soft sweaters, the satisfaction of repairing broken things ....
which is what i want to reclaim
it’s like... “look... do you see the grain fields down there? i do not eat bread. the wheat fields have nothing to say to me. and that is sad”
(which is a quote from the book the little prince, which weirdly the exact sentiment i had walking for miles outside of arras, FR - my diary- “i’m trying to develop more of an appreciation for wheat fields since were spending a lot of time together, all i see is something gwyneth paltrow wouldn’t eat)
which is to say, i want to engage and be stoked with the real world around me - to borrow from christianity, i want the rocks to cry out to me...
so on a very practical level this means this means that when light streams into my window at 6:00am, to feel grateful that it took 8 minutes and 20 seconds to get from the sun to my eyelids, instead of a loathing of the ritual of the train and the office, which ends up being a loathing of life.
it means feeling a little pleased with the speed and accuracy of what can be done on a desktop computer, continuing to learn new functions and programs with satisfaction instead of feeling like I am languishing behind the soft glow of a 2
-monitor set up all day.
(i watched the old movie “sleepless in seattle” recently and the scene where the two kids book a flight on a 200lb, 2-color computer is a good reference point for this)
it means listening to the people around me with a kind of awe for the little universe they represent, regardless of if they have some sort of credential that i personally think is valuable.
then it means reclaiming the little rituals like hot tea and emptying my purse at night.
and it means taking time daily to do the things that pull me back to the physical world- running and stretching, being cold, riding a bike, surfing and skating and snowboarding, or keeping focus on a tennis court.