Beauty Treats & Care Package for a Big Day
A little nourishing and pick me up for June 14
Dear Brave & Beautiful Friends,
Today, June 14, is a big day. And every big, challenging, unusual day needs some hearty sustenance for fuel, a lift, recovery, hope, perseverance.
Here’s a weekend care package & beauty treats. Thanks for being willing to turn toward the world, even when it’s hard. Ouch, I feel it too. I love you.
1.
What does art do for us? Why does it exist? Why do we like art?
Don’t miss musician Brian Eno deep diving into the purpose of art, why we make art and like art at the New Yorker Radio Hour, What Art Does
Listen here,
Yes, I have another1 profoundly beautiful podcast for you, a conversation between musician, producer, the pioneer of ambient music, Brian Eno, and the New Yorker’s eloquent and coolest-of-cool writers, Amanda Petrusich2.
These two humans treat us to ideas that twinkle with lyricism and melody.
The occasion for the interview is Eno’s prolific year of releases: a book, and a pair of albums.
The book, WHAT ART DOES, is by Brian Eno and Bette Adriaanse.
A pair of albums, with Beatie Wolfe are Luminal and Lateral.
Luminal is more song-y than the atmospheric Lateral.
The album cover reminds me of Marc Chagall’s “Wheatfield on a Summer’s Afternoon.” (I have a canvas print hanging in our guest bedroom; you need this kind of sun flare living in the Pacific Northwest.)
Here’s Petrusich describing what Eno’s music does for her:
“. . . a thing that you feel in your body, in all the soft and tender places that go untouched by thought.”
Here’s Eno on ART:
People think that art is a luxury. We are very used to the idea that humans respond to pain and punishment . . . But I think we are also guided to a huge degree by things that we find beautiful. Or awesome or striking or impressive . . . I think we very much want to be guided by those things as to where to go.
2.
I like to republish and update this essay every June 14. This one goes out to anyone who is suffering, or loves someone who’s suffering from one of life’s soul-crushing addictions/behaviors/habits. It can be anything you want out of, but feel stuck in a relentless spin cycle. Please know:
You are not alone.
You’re not a bad person.
Humans have a tremendous capacity to recover, heal, repair, renew. THAT INCLUDES YOU.
You don’t have to suffer, or heal, in silence.
3.
An E.T. Writes Home. Beautiful, achy, mischievous, unusual, funny.
Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Mertino.
The “human” protagonist is an alien baby girl, sent from a faraway planet, who reports observations about life on Earth and human behavior—via fax. I’m going to let you have the pleasure of entering this book as untainted as possible, so you can have your own experience. It’s touching, funny, brutal, beautiful, surprising, metaphoric, and wildly open for interpretation in the best ways. Then let me know what you think.
Thanks, brave ones.
Here’s to you, to all of us, on Flag Day. xo
