18. BRB, Moving In With My Boyfriend Lenny
Dove sei, George? | Lake Como, Italy
Buongiorno friends,
Here are 5 things I thought were worth sharing this week.
1. A poem
Wild Geese - Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Listen to Mary read her full poem here.
2. The Four Agreements
Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements lives permanently on my bedside table:
1) Be impeccable with your word.
2) Don’t take anything personally.
3) Don’t make assumptions.
4) Always do your best.
3. Spilling the tea
My meditation teacher Jacqui introduced me to tea from Daphnis and Chloe who have a shop just under the Acropolis Hill in Athens, Greece.
Dittany is a healing, therapeutic and aromatic plant that grows wild only on the mountainsides and gorges of the Greek island of Crete, Greece. It is still used today traditionally, to heal wounds, soothe pain (especially headaches), cure snake bites, and ease childbirth and as a remedy against stomach ailments and rheumatism.
Greek Mountain Tea is packed with health benefits, it has been traditionally used as a healer by folk medicine for the treatment of inflammation, gastrointestinal disorders and common cold. Recent research shows that its extracts can enhance memory and learning, as scientists are studying the plant’s correlation to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.
4. Tourist Detraction
Tourists, Venice - Lauchlin Wilkinson
Rafia Zakaria writes about how post-COVID19 tourism should look in an article for The Baffler.
“THERE IS NO ROOM FOR TOURISTS in a world of ‘displaced persons,’” the author Evelyn Waugh declared sulkily.
The year was 1946, and the world was still reeling from the depredation and devastation of World War II. Waugh was right to be sorry; here was the beginning of the end of colonialism in its explicit forms, the end of the age of the white man as explorer-traveler heading off to the most remote corners of the world. The shrinking of empire felt like it meant the white man could no longer go anywhere and everywhere. Waugh need not have worried too much, however; people continued to be tourists after World War II, undeterred by any moral travesty involved in voraciously gawking at the world while others searched for mere shelter and survival.
Tourism should never be resuscitated in the form in which it existed. Those who love travel must be forced to consider how their gluttony for it has affected others. The power difference between tourists and locals must be recalibrated so that it is interdependence, rather than servitude, that defines the relationship. This might mean fewer “experiences” but more understanding. Fewer people will be able to go and fewer places will be seen, but travel will also be less injurious, less rapacious in its unthinking imposition of injustices and inconveniences on so many.
The question is no longer when can I be a tourist again, but what kind of tourist do I want to be?
5. Listening to
Tara Brach is a psychologist, an author and a Buddhist meditation teacher. Her podcasts and her talks have been a constant source of calm for me during the pandemic. She has guided meditations (just 20mins) that you can fit into the busiest of days. The humorous stories she adds to every episode are HILARIOUS.
This one on ‘Facing Fear’ is no exception.
Fear is a natural and universal part of our incarnation, and, when it goes on overdrive, we get imprisoned in the suffering of separation. These two talks explore how the RAIN meditation can help us face fear, and discover the boundless loving awareness that includes but is not contracted by currents of fear.