From The Restory - Conversations On The Journey (226)

Existential Health

Wonder, Self-Acceptance, Purposeful Living

The Conversation

Elements From The Conversation

Creative Piece

As a visual expression of this transition to our "second life," an existence stripped of demands and masks, American artist David Best breaks through the usual boundaries of art. His layered, intricate wooden temples are not built to serve as lasting monuments, but to stand as temporary spaces where people can write their deepest losses, guilt, and obsolete roles on the walls.

As Best himself notes, it is not about the technical craftsmanship of the structure, but about the space it creates for the human soul to free itself.

And even when an installation like this one in the Renwick Gallery is not allowed to be burned on site, the structure is stripped by hand afterward and the written messages taken to the desert to be burned there in silence. Thus the flames and the spaces strip away all the noise of everyday life, leaving us with only the pure wonder of our own fragile presence.

David Best's "Temple"- "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man”

Music

Jonathan Roy's Keeping Me Alive is about a breaking point where someone leaves behind an old life or expectations to become their own unique self, raw and alive again ("I left my home, I left my style... I'm targeted by people's lies, but I don't care, I'm staying alive"). It expresses in music something of being fully alive and specifically the "second life".

With our love.

George & Matilda

Comments

Whistle while you work

Drawing by Ron Leishman When last did you whistle while working? When last did you hear someone else whistle while working? Somehow it bothers me that whistling has become an almost absent element in our work. The sound of a person whistling a tune while busy somewhere in the house or out in the workshop conveys something of an underlying happiness, satisfaction and contentment. An enjoyment of the work itself. The tune need not be flawless. Applying more air than sound won’t lead to disqualification, as long as the intention is there. Whistling can even be replaced by singing in all that I’ve said up to now. The same principles apply. The absence of any of these two activities bothers me because it says something about us doing the work and the type of work that we do. Can it be that our type of labour in this 21 st century is not conducive to either whistling or singing? What type of work is that then – draining, stressful, pressured? Or are our conclusions ...

A likely Hero: Jara Cimrman

As Matilda has already indicated, one of the most difficult things to do after you’ve visited a country is to return and convey something of what you’ve experienced. How do you show a city’s many faces, introduce its inhabitants? How do you tell of the effects a history has on people and of a stance towards life that can actually not be translated into words? In the case of Prague, it is very helpful to have someone like Jara Cimrman. ~ ~ v ~ ~ Petrin Hill, on the left bank of the river Vltava running through Prague, is in many ways a site worth visiting. Climbing the 299 steps of the Petrin Tower, inspired by the Eiffel Tower, gives you one of the most beautiful views of the city. But by going down into its basement, you enter into the psyche of the Czech people. Here, quite unobtrusively, is the museum for the “ Genius, who has not become famous ”. Matilda and I almost stumbled onto it by chance and as we went through the exhibition, our amazement over this brilliant ...

You never can tell

This morning I was out in the vegetable garden looking for signs of sprouting cabbage and spinach that we had sown a week ago. Among the weeds, I did find the tiny seedlings pushing through bravely, but I had a surprise coming. The young Zulu gardener drew my attention to an abundance of ready food growing in the ruins of the tiny stone cottage only meters away: Umbido, a type of wild spinach, and a staple food in the rural areas. I grew up with much the same in the northern parts of the country, but called Marogo in the Sotho language. Enter my new helper and friend, Winnie Nkosi. She lives on the edge of the Zaaihoekdam in a traditional mud house with no electricity. Twice a week she walks the four odd kilometres to help me with all things domestic. She has also taken it upon herself to teach me the Zulu language and culture with optimistic determination. The planned lunch menu was immediately ditched in favour of a lesson in local cooking and Winnie showed me the differenc...

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