The world has gone even madder. I didn’t think that that was possible.
The world has gone even madder. I didn’t think that that was possible
I’m a fairly heavy consumer of current affairs, and even though I am fundamentally predisposed to happiness, at the moment it’s hard to feel optimism. I’m sure that you feel much the same.
Today we started photographing G / H Mark 2. I have been really enjoying the process of preparing for this shoot, which I have found delightfully challenging.
Anyway, the other day I was thinking about the difference between happiness and its more extreme sibling, joy.
I think it’s probably this; happiness is something that can exist in the background of our lives, a general sense of contentment, a feeling that things are pretty good. It ebbs and flows of course (“bobs up and down like a metronome” as a football pundit once put it), but if we’re lucky, it’s always kind of there in the background.
Joy, on the other hand is more ephemeral, fleeting even.
So, while the new photos and products are tinkered with, I thought I might go slightly off piste and list a few things that have been bringing me joy so far this year, in the hope that you might find some inspiration in my experiences.
1. David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? This is his latest show, an evolution of the excellent American Utopia. It is absolutely extraordinary; inventive, completely original, beautiful to look at, and the music, well, his already wonderful canon has evolved into a juggernaut of almost Balearic proportions. Add to this the fact that at 73 years old his creative and physical energy is undimmed, and, well, inspiration lurks at every turn.
Truly, you must try to see this show when it returns to the UK in the summer. I have seen at least 1000 gigs so far, and this was a Top 10 evening. The positive energy inside the Hammersmith Apollo was worth the price of admission alone.
2. Caroline in her orange G / H jumper fills me with a particular joy. She has been wearing it a lot recently and I find it thrilling.
3. Selecting all of my unwanted clothes for sale, as mentioned in a recent missive here, has offered up huge joy which spikes every time that I look in my cupboards and see calm where once there was chaos. And a big bonus is that on one of my clear-out days I did 14000 steps before lunch just by tidying up. Who knew?
4. I love my work and I’ve found some new projects really joyful so far this year. To be doing work that I love is a great privilege. I have been absolutely loving the G / H rethink, the planning of our new open studio at Glen Dye and, in particular, writing a new book. This is my fourth book, and I am writing it with no pressure for commercial success and with absolute focus; as such, it has been a wonderful experience. Joyful activities are often all-consuming (and sometimes exhausting too).
5. There’s a new cover of the Velvet Underground’s classic Who Loves The Sun by Matt Berninger and Rosanne Cash (no less). It’s okay until Cash’s solo kicks in at 1:06. And then, JOY! Have a listen.
Finally, today.
6. Truthfully, the fact that natural wine no longer seems to dominate every new restaurant’s wine list is a cause for joy. For a moment there I thought I’d never be offered proper wine again.
More joy next week.
