This was one of the loveliest and most motivating things I’ve read in a long while. Thank you! So many of my twenty-something-year old friends and I keep expressing a desire for more engaging, enriching practices instead of soulless scrolling and screens. And the answer is so obvious: it’s in our hands! It’s in connection. It’s found in working with our bodies.
I foresee a STRONG return to “analog” as more and more folks get sick of AI and tech and eventually wake up to the beauty of working with their hands and relating to the environment around them more intimately and richly. The hipster revival of vinyl records and cassette players were a good start. I hope we go many steps further.
I kept thinking of David Whyte’s “Everything is Waiting For You” throughout this piece.
Gonna go pick up my guitar now. 🕯️
Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte:
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings.
Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
Fascinating! It seems that education will have to move towards writing with pen and paper, speaking with lips and tongue and lessons that are mostly one on one. It is ironic that AI is what will make this imperative. In Margaret Campbell’s book, The Great Cellists, she shows the lineage of cello teachers and their students and their students dating from the 17th century in Italy and the 18th century in Germany up until recent times. Cellists like Jacqueline Du Pré, Steven Isserlis and Yo-Yo Ma are part of this lineage, but also any capable cello student today could add their name.
I so enjoy your archive posts, they feel timeless, like reminiscing with an old friend. Like maintaining a contact.
I looked up the French word Maintenir
maintenir
maintain, sustain, retain, preserve, uphold, steady
conserver
keep, retain, maintain, preserve, conserve, store
entretenir
maintain, keep, nurture, preserve, look after, tend
“If your current thoughts about yourself can survive it, the practice is not fit for purpose.”
This begs to be borrowed and shared 👍
This is just glorious. You write so beautifully and you delve so deep. Thank you.
Thank you Iain. I seem to care inordinately about touch...
Wonderful! Thank you, Caroline!
This was one of the loveliest and most motivating things I’ve read in a long while. Thank you! So many of my twenty-something-year old friends and I keep expressing a desire for more engaging, enriching practices instead of soulless scrolling and screens. And the answer is so obvious: it’s in our hands! It’s in connection. It’s found in working with our bodies.
I foresee a STRONG return to “analog” as more and more folks get sick of AI and tech and eventually wake up to the beauty of working with their hands and relating to the environment around them more intimately and richly. The hipster revival of vinyl records and cassette players were a good start. I hope we go many steps further.
I kept thinking of David Whyte’s “Everything is Waiting For You” throughout this piece.
Gonna go pick up my guitar now. 🕯️
Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte:
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings.
Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
I am so glad you are pulling these out and sharing them, Caro. There are so many nuggets in here.
Fascinating! It seems that education will have to move towards writing with pen and paper, speaking with lips and tongue and lessons that are mostly one on one. It is ironic that AI is what will make this imperative. In Margaret Campbell’s book, The Great Cellists, she shows the lineage of cello teachers and their students and their students dating from the 17th century in Italy and the 18th century in Germany up until recent times. Cellists like Jacqueline Du Pré, Steven Isserlis and Yo-Yo Ma are part of this lineage, but also any capable cello student today could add their name.