35. The Scariest Dog Costume Ever
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”
— Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz
This year I’ve realised that sometimes things are very bad and sometimes they are very good, but most of the time they are both and we just haven’t been paying attention.
Here’s five wonderful things for you, all for free.
1. A quote
“Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again.
Sister, those who expected to rise did not, their beds became their cooling boards, and their blankets became their winding sheets. And those dead folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this weather or ten minutes of that plowing that person was grumbling about.
So you watch yourself about complaining, Sister. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.
Don’t complain.”
2. Dave White Art
My favouriteFAVOURITE British artist, Dave White, has a new collection out with East London gallery Nelly Duff.
[FYI: he painted the fox above my fireplace in this newsletter’s opening photo]
Dave’s art predominantly focuses on endangered animals here in the UK and the rest of the world.
3. Animal Farm
It’s 75 years (!!) since this book was first published and I’m re-reading it because .. *gesticulates wildly to the entire world right now.*
If you haven’t yet read Animal Farm, I highly recommend you do. 1984 is also worth a read. Just make sure to read something lighthearted in between!
This article by Téa Obreht has some great points.
“All evidence points to the fact that we’re in a great deal of very familiar trouble the whole world over. That we so dependably manage to be, despite the existence of prophetic works like Animal Farm, should worry us to the point of despair. But this is the way of our species: memory fades. We grow bored with the lessons of the past. We tell ourselves: things could never get as bad as they once were because, unlike those who came before us, we are good people who know better than to let it happen again.
The notion that Western countries are clever and strong enough to both recognize and resist the grip of totalitarianism is a dangerous myth. A fairy story, if you will—one to which we are ironically susceptible, because being shaped by Animal Farm deludes us into thinking we are sufficiently armed. “We already know what we need to know,” we might say. “We all know that individuality is a form of resistance, and that anyone who hungrily pursues power is probably unworthy of attaining it.”
4. Greek Quarantology
5. I Love Lists
Making my way through Very Good Films via Oak Park Studio who are based in Melbourne, Australia.
See you next Sunday.