"You love the rose you tend."
some brief thoughts on what objects change our lives, and how
On Tik Tok, like other social platforms, you get the chance to look back on what you posted a year or two ago, “on this day.” In doing so, sometimes you come across something you still find funny, you now find embarrassing, or you still agree with. This happened for me today, from a post a year ago around Black Friday, and the following idea from the children’s book, The Little Prince. It goes like this:
“It's the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important. People have forgotten this truth, but you mustn't forget it.”
I need this reminder constantly—whether a year ago or me now. Wouldn’t it be lovely if buying the rollerblades made us, quickly, the type of person who rollerblades? Wouldn’t it solve a lot of issues if buying the Bala bangles made us the sort of person who unrolled their mat and moved each day, with a vibey apartment to match, no less (yes, I’m being a bit on the nose and critiquing my own content—it’s called punching laterally and it is allowed). If you’ve not seen it, returning to the movie, Shopaholic, or, even better, the books by Sophie Kinsella, may be a good move as the holidays rush over us. The story reminds us that in marketing, we are being sold a fantasy, and as story-making, pain-avoiding creatures, it makes sense why it hooks us. We must actively try to unhook.
As many of my friends and patients I work with know, I am not a fan of pain just for the hell of it. I am a fan of hard things when they are the only path to what we do want. I am not against shopping, or a good sale—far from it. I am so in favor of the magic of a perfect dress, or an object that may truly change your life, and that is why I am against overconsumption. We must have enough time with our objects for our objects to become something magically common and at our fingertips, to becomes some alchemizing part of our life.
Take some time and ask yourself if there are any roses you have not sufficiently tended to—whether in your closet, in a crammed junk drawer, or saved in your files on your laptop. See if the expansion you want may already be under your nose, but for it to come about, you must first tend it.
Cheers,
Margaret
Bad Art Every Day
