I love this & you of course. What a day, what a life. "I am never as free as I want to be" I am stealing this. Yesterday I was driving in the dunes & there was a little girl sitting in the front seat next to me. It was her birthday & as we got to the beach she asked if she could take her seat belt off & as I drove down the beach, she leaned her body out the window & kept saying "this feels like freedom"
"It felt as if we could reach some pitch of living where we congregated in great pods like whales do, singing and singing. To feed, we would only have to open our mouths."
Another serendipidous post, Sal! And a beautiful piece of writing.
The word 'bohemia' re-entered my consciousness just recently when I finally got hold of Alain de Botton's book from 2004 called Status Anxiety. A dear friend has been patiently listening to me share all my worries about the exposure and risks of self-publishing and she said I should read the de Botton's book because I was not thinking straight about what matters and who we are. The final chapter in the book (do you know it?) talks about how bohemianism has always opposed the normal markers of success i.e. wealth, status, property, fame, etc and instead used the richness of life and the value of art to describe a good life and a person who has succeeded. This helped me!!
These are the values I think you are celebrating here. It's so hard when we are all living in the glare of social media (and many are facing real financial hardship) but I would like to say (and believe!) that the real values of life are community, creativity of all kinds, and harmony with nature.
"...community, creativity of all kinds, and harmony with nature." If we don't have the power to re-create our entire lives--and most humans won't--we do have the power to carve out space for these in the lives we have. The truly alive have done so even under the harshest conditions, whether sweetly or defiantly, clandestinely or flaunting. Since limitations are reality for all of us, won't creatives make art from that reality, no matter how miniscule?
Thanks for that, Kathy. I know some of de Botton’s work, but not that book. I think precarity has always been part of Bohemian subcultures, but community and mutual aid have been part of what makes that survivable. Someone on the panel also pointed out that patronage and wealthy friends sometimes saved the day.
Describing this aspect of the human condition as an edge has sparked further ideas inside me. This piece is lovely, thoughtful, and poignant; thank you.
I am so sorry to have missed this--I just got home from Truro a week ago. I think often of Provincetown in the 80s, and to describe it to someone who was not there at that particular moment in history feels impossible to me, although you do. How do you capture that much love, that much passion, that much art, talent, brilliance, terror, life, death, and beauty?
I wish I had been there!—especially since the place owes something to Shakespeare. (As do I.) The coast of Bohemia plays an important role in The Winter's Tale; it's where little Perdita is left when her father disowns her, and when the famous bear chases her minder away. But Bohemia, the real Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic, is landlocked. So much the better for imagining, a place that isn't there! So much the better for remembering, a place that never was! Such places are the realest.
“Such places are the realest.” Yes! I love that you are bringing Shakespeare into the conversation, and with him places that are real only in our dreams.
I love this & you of course. What a day, what a life. "I am never as free as I want to be" I am stealing this. Yesterday I was driving in the dunes & there was a little girl sitting in the front seat next to me. It was her birthday & as we got to the beach she asked if she could take her seat belt off & as I drove down the beach, she leaned her body out the window & kept saying "this feels like freedom"
I love that story, Kathe! It reminds me how important freedom and the feeling of freedom are in childhood, where our creative lives begin.
"It felt as if we could reach some pitch of living where we congregated in great pods like whales do, singing and singing. To feed, we would only have to open our mouths."
Oh, how rightly said, Sal!
Thank you, Rachel!
Loved the Saturday panel. Thanks to you, Kathe, and the whole gang for sharing an afternoon with us!
I loved the conversation — it felt like something that should keep going, generating more occasions to share and connect.
Another serendipidous post, Sal! And a beautiful piece of writing.
The word 'bohemia' re-entered my consciousness just recently when I finally got hold of Alain de Botton's book from 2004 called Status Anxiety. A dear friend has been patiently listening to me share all my worries about the exposure and risks of self-publishing and she said I should read the de Botton's book because I was not thinking straight about what matters and who we are. The final chapter in the book (do you know it?) talks about how bohemianism has always opposed the normal markers of success i.e. wealth, status, property, fame, etc and instead used the richness of life and the value of art to describe a good life and a person who has succeeded. This helped me!!
These are the values I think you are celebrating here. It's so hard when we are all living in the glare of social media (and many are facing real financial hardship) but I would like to say (and believe!) that the real values of life are community, creativity of all kinds, and harmony with nature.
"...community, creativity of all kinds, and harmony with nature." If we don't have the power to re-create our entire lives--and most humans won't--we do have the power to carve out space for these in the lives we have. The truly alive have done so even under the harshest conditions, whether sweetly or defiantly, clandestinely or flaunting. Since limitations are reality for all of us, won't creatives make art from that reality, no matter how miniscule?
Indeed!
Thanks for that, Kathy. I know some of de Botton’s work, but not that book. I think precarity has always been part of Bohemian subcultures, but community and mutual aid have been part of what makes that survivable. Someone on the panel also pointed out that patronage and wealthy friends sometimes saved the day.
Describing this aspect of the human condition as an edge has sparked further ideas inside me. This piece is lovely, thoughtful, and poignant; thank you.
If you write about it, keep in touch!
I am so sorry to have missed this--I just got home from Truro a week ago. I think often of Provincetown in the 80s, and to describe it to someone who was not there at that particular moment in history feels impossible to me, although you do. How do you capture that much love, that much passion, that much art, talent, brilliance, terror, life, death, and beauty?
We seem to be people who just miss each other by a hair. Maybe we should collaborate on something!
I wish I had been there!—especially since the place owes something to Shakespeare. (As do I.) The coast of Bohemia plays an important role in The Winter's Tale; it's where little Perdita is left when her father disowns her, and when the famous bear chases her minder away. But Bohemia, the real Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic, is landlocked. So much the better for imagining, a place that isn't there! So much the better for remembering, a place that never was! Such places are the realest.
“Such places are the realest.” Yes! I love that you are bringing Shakespeare into the conversation, and with him places that are real only in our dreams.