Years ago — I don’t remember where, unfortunately — I read an old Chinese Proverb: “Nobody’s family can hang out the sign, ‘NOTHING THE MATTER HERE.’” I immediately set Owen, who was only 3 at the time, to the task of hand-lettering us a sign that said just that. (I found it in a box and hung it up in my office yesterday.)
“There is a vast difference between positive thinking and existential courage.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided
You know you’re in a bad spot when passing sidewalk chalk platitudes on your daily walk makes you murderous.
For me, yesterday, the breaking point was a hand-painted sign that read “EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY.”
What fucking planet are these people living on?
“No, I don’t feel alright! None of us feel alright!! Can't you see what's going on?!?!?”
(This is perfect thank you @sonia__harris) pic.twitter.com/jcE2odJCgB
— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) May 5, 2020
My favorite cinematic misanthropes started conversing with each other.
“Where do they teach you how to talk like this?” Melvin Udall asked.
“What absolute twaddle,” Withnail agreed.
Every time somebody asks if I’m alright I think of this scene from GROSSE POINTE BLANK
“No! I’m not alright! I’m hurt, I’m pissed, and I gotta find a new job.”https://t.co/ABt5ovFY9l pic.twitter.com/TlWCspwDFB
— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) May 5, 2020
I was reminded of the story of G.K. Chesterton’s book, Platitudes Undone:
In 1911, author Holbrook Jackson published a small book of aphorisms under the (mildly pretentious) title Platitudes in the Making: Precepts and Advices for Gentlefolk and gave a copy to his friend G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton, it seems, sat down with the book – and a green pencil – and wrote a response to each saying in the book. Presumably he then set the book down, and somehow, someway, it turned up in a San Francisco book shop in 1955, where it was purchased by a certain Dr. Alfred Kessler, an admirer of Chesterton. Every book collector dreams of such a find. Rather than keep the book to himself, however, Dr. Kessler and Ignatius Press have produced a facsimile edition. Remove the dust jacket, and you have a reproduction, in every particular, of that 1911 volume, together with all of Chesterton’s remarks. It’s a remarkable project, and a real treat for readers of Chesterton.
People are dying. Our leaders are corrupt. Things are not good.
But there’s still sunshine and birds and Gene Kelly dancing.
If we are going to paint the neighborhood with slogans, let’s at least honor each other’s grief and intelligence.
everything will be okay.
NOT everything will be okay BUT SOME THINGS WILL.
I was bored of drawing blind contour self-portraits in my diary, and then, as often happens in my projects, I switched out the tool I was using, and suddenly the practice became new again.
The only trouble with the brush pen is that it doesn’t give you much feedback. The brush glides over the page, and if you’re not looking, you sometimes can’t tell if you’re actually making marks:
In order to orient myself when drawing blind with the brush, I have to be absolutely silent so I can hear the slight swish to know I’m actually making a mark. No headphones, no music. I even have to keep the edge of my hand from resting on the page because it makes a scraping sound as I move around. This turns drawing into even more of a multi-sensory experience than it already is…
So with the brush, so with life. The world is shouting, but there is a voice inside, waiting to be heard. Shut up and listen. Decline to comment. Hold thy tongue, loosen thy pen. Noise is fascinating, if we give it our attention. Silence is a space for something new to happen.
“It seems stupid I would put out an album,” says Fiona Apple, of her terrific new record, Fetch the Bolt Cutters. “But this is what I know how to do.”
I love that: “This is what I know how to do.”
There are people flailing around, shouting, “Oh God, what do we do?!?”
There are people shouting, “I know exactly what we should do!”
And then there are people busy at work, whispering, “This is what I know how to do.”
I want to be in that last group.
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