Perfecting…
Recently, I read an engaging post by Lindsay Cameron Wilson
that referred me to Ron Pagett’s poem – How to be Perfect. It’s truly delightful, amusing and wise.
Lindsay also talked about Molly Wizenberg
who spoke on the same subject.
I wondered, was there a viral ‘How to Be Perfect’ across social media? Perhaps there was. Rather like Tomas Karlborg of StaatsBallet Berlin whose video
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on Tik Tok took the ballet world by storm.
(I wonder if we Olds could do it at our Seniors classes? Maybe. With practice. Who knows?)
But back to perfection…
Pagett, Wizenberg and Cameron Wilson put me in mind of a Desiderata – things we want or need to make life rounded, dimensional, simpler. Thus I made my own list.
It’s certainly not a list on how to be perfect. Maybe imperfect is more likely, but it’s a list nevertheless. My personal guide to living, and what I like about it is its effortless nature with not a single reference to materialistic life at all.
Wake up and breathe slowly.
Always stretch everything.
Make sure there’s milk and oats for breakfast.
Be grateful when the sun shines.
Be glad when it rains and listen to the falling rain.
Hug more and tell all who matter how much you love them. Preferably to infinity and beyond.
Walk long with the dog, talking to him. He’ll listen.
NEVER wear earbuds when out walking.
Listen to your surroundings – to the birds and bees, the sound of waves, the laughter of children, the dulcet murmur of adults. Be glad you are a part of such beautiful daily mundanity.
Wear clothes that make you feel comfortable, that make you feel special, maybe even that make you feel as if you’re a legend in your own little lunchbox.
Garden with joy – for what is gardening but hope for the future?
Forest bathe.
Sea bathe.
Write – use words, learn more words. Order them in creative ways.
Write letters and mail them.
Eat chocolate – life is short.
Cook. Make of your kitchen what your word-document is – a refuge where displacement is the prime ingredient.
Buy more fruit, nuts and veg than meat and fish.
Always carry knee and ankle bandages.
Be content and if you can’t be, take a small step sideways and try again…
My list goes on but it is plain and unexceptional except to me. When I read it, it makes me feel I’m moving along the right byway. That I have in fact left the pressured mainstream of life and perhaps I am, at last, living how I want to.
My Time:
*Attending for an MRCP. Writing this post while being partially sedated has been a joy…
*Minding grandson. He’s still big on lellow, but also on the intricacies of imagination and why telling stories to oneself is a good thing. In both our minds it’s escapism – again that word displacement.
*Planting veg and talking to the berry plants.
*Thanking my garden for its spring grandeur, even if the wind has ripped off the ruffles and the unseasonal heat has scorched the colours like a hot iron sitting too long on taffeta.
*Ballet class. Perfecting what we are taught. What can I say? Not exactly Tomas Karlborg’s viral dance but a joy nevertheless because our Miss Catharine could easily be Tomas Karlborg.
She has us reaching for heights we never thought to attain.
*Disappointed that L’île Barbe Historical Committee hasn’t responded to my email questions about that enigmatic and iconic setting. However, I do have a Plan B that doesn’t involve extortionate airfares to Lyon.
*Stitching. Running out of threads and will shop (still partially sedated) for more this afternoon. I have a beautiful shirt that needs mending and will try to do it in the style of Nat Mendham’s work.
Reading:
Kindle: Sea of Memories from Fiona Valpy. Probably my favourite wartime story of the year. There is something of Rosamunde Pilcher’s style this time and what I really appreciate is how light-handed she is with WWII fact. So many authors currently load it on by the bucketful, and character and meaningful setting are lost in the overt efforts to prove they’ve been researching. I’m sure they have, but there’s this thing called subtlety and Valpy has it in spades.
Print: I’ve ordered Katherine May’s Enchantment from my favourite bookstore after a recommendation by Mike Sowden
from a couple of weeks ago.
Online: This rather punchy essay from Helen Garner. It sings on quite a few levels.
Listening:
I’ve finished Ben Kane’s Crusader and have begun King, the final in his Richard Lionheart trilogy. Brilliantly written and stunningly narrated.
Also Stephen Fry. Stellar as always.
Watching:
Great Australian Walks with Julia Zemiro. SBS on Demand. I love the sheer joy in what she’s doing, her cheeky cynicism and the way she talks to First Nation folk about their opinions on sites that she is visiting. That more than anything gives the programme hidden depths, especially as we head toward a national referendum on a Voice to Parliament for the Indigenous Nation of Australia.
Personally, I find it criminal to think that foreign nations have gilded ambassadorial estates in our nation’s capital whilst the First Nation Embassy is still under canvas on Ngunnawal Country/Parliament’s lawns and has been since 1972. All they need is funding. What HAVE our white politicians been doing for the last fifty odd years?!!!!!
As someone remarked to me the other day, our First Nation have existed in the harsh environment of Australia for 60,000+ years. They have things to teach us. We should be listening!
McDonald and Dodds. Britbox. An odd crime show that we really enjoy. Clever, polished and well-acted. Good story lines.
Ehrengarde – The Art of Seduction. Netflix. A charming historical drama/comedy from Denmark with subtitles and which I chortled over. Best of all was that it starred Sidse Babett Knudsen who we grew to admire years ago when we were devotees of Borgen.
The cast is perfect, settings delightful and it really is a fairytale. Except that at the end it’s revealed that Cazotte the Painter, so filled with the finer points of seduction, is actually Casanova. Explains so much!
We have chosen to no longer watch TV news and so we Escape to the Country and are as fond of Jules, Jonno, Nikki and others as no doubt their English fans are. Beautiful show, wonderful homes and villages.
But of course nothing is perfect: ‘The greatest illusion,′ said the mole, ‘is that life should be perfect.’ Charlie Mackesy from The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse.’
And yet that simple statement from Mackesy’s Mole says it all so perfectly.
And so does Pagett when he says: ‘Hold your anger out at arm's length and look at it as if it were a glass ball. Then add it to your glass ball collection.’
Lots of songs out there about perfection and its opposite, but I’m sure Mole would agree that this piece is not at all illusory - just simply and calmly perfect…
Thanks Prue - I agree the poem is delightful. Also interesting that you mentioned Desiderata because that one actually crossed my mind yesterday as I was contemplating how my life has changed and how simplicity is moving to the top of the priority list. The first line truly seems to have arrived for me:
"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons."
Another delight, Prue - your 'Desiderata' has stopped me in my tracks to consider what would be on my own list. I'm treating it as a prompt - for which thank you!
Your grace shines through in your pictures of ballet class - you are all so beautifully poised. Absolutely wonderful stuff - and it's totally clear that you're all having a fabulous time!
I'm going to be checking out your wonderful links - you always point me in the most wonderful directions. Thank you. 😘