The Narrative Within

With so many people in the world, why should anyone ever be lonely?

he fed her birds

Ona Vitkus was a 104 year-old Lithuanian living alone in Portland, Maine. As a part of a community service project, an 11 year old scout went to her house every Saturday to do small chores which included feeding her birds. The boy, maybe somewhat autistic, was fixated with the number 10 and Guinness world records. He’d even convinced Ona to aim at a world record herself—that of being the oldest person alive. But then the boy unexpectedly died. One in a Million Boy by Monica Wood is a book that makes you want to cry and smile simultaneously. It tells the story of how two people, Ona and the boy’s father, Quinn, with apparently nothing in common save the boy, become friends. Who knows how many Onas and Quinns are out there just waiting to become friends, too.

One in a Million Boy

Maybe people are lonely because they haven’t learned how to be with themselves and with others simultaneously. It’s a problem of interrelating. But reading literary fiction can help. The identification with fictional characters can make us more empathic. Because reading why characters do what they do gives us an awareness that we can take into the real world.

If I were a book, would I be easy to read?

Jeanne Calment is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having been the oldest person ever recorded. Born and raised in Arles, France, she lived to be 122 years old. In 1888, while working in her father’s fabric shop, Vincent Van Gogh came in to buy canvas. She described him as being dirty and disagreeable.

Jeanne Calment & Vincent Van Gogh

On her 120^th birthday, Jeanne is quoted as having said: “I only have one wrinkle and I’m sitting on it”.

Busted

My friend, Franca, recently shared an article by Goffredo Parise, Italian journalist (and companion of artist Giosetta Fioroni) entitled “Il rimedio è la povertà” (“The remedy is poverty”). The article attacks modern man’s addiction to consumerism.

Parise made a distinction between poverty and misery—there is nothing poetic about not having a home or a meal to eat. But poverty, said Parise, means knowing what’s necessary as opposed to what’s superfluous.

This article, written over forty years ago, was prophetic. Having an economy based on consumerism means creating an economy that interprets too much as not enough thus necessitating constant consumption. But you can only put so much air in a balloon before it busts. And, my friends, we’ve been busted.

Busted

Quantity is not quality. And it is this lack of distinction that has provoked a worldwide economic crisis.

If you’ve little but it feels like a lot, you’re rich. If you’ve a lot but it feels like it’s not enough, then you’re poor. To become wealthy, you must learn to perceive the prosaic as poetic. To become wealthy, you must have everyday aesthetics. And to have everyday aesthetics, you must concentrate on the experience and not on the object.

Of course we can’t live in an object free world. But if these objects are not necessary or do not lead to an aesthetic experience, they are not only useless but harmful as they consume our vital space.

Objects, however, can lead towards experience. For example, transforming something you have but don’t use anymore. Because that act of transformation can create an aesthetically enriching experience necessary for daily aesthetics. Below are two personal examples:

My perfume comes in a Boudoir Pink bottle that’s too pretty to throw away. So this summer I filled an empty one with my homemade St. John’s Wort tincture. Since the spray head had to be pried off, it was reattached with a hose clamp.

Boutique Pink Bottle with Hose Clamp

My summer nightgown is a dress that I’ve had for more than 20 years. It’s full of holes that have been repaired boro-style. For some reason, wearing this dress as a nightgown makes me smile. Maybe because it’s permeated with pleasant memories.

Muy Marcottage Mended Nightgown