TOOLS (YOU CAN'T BUY) FOR THIS PECULIAR MOMENT
or I guess you could buy them? but it's rlly about their energy
1. A TELESCOPE
Don’t try and figure out who invented the telescope. It’s one of those things suspended for eternity in a grey area. Back in the 1600s, a lot of Dutch men fought for the title of Telescope Inventor—I will not be weighing in. Besides, you don’t need a physical telescope for this exercise. Forget the squabbling Hans, Zacharias and Jacob. Take your hands, curl your fingers into a loose fist. Leave a little gap between fingers and palms. Stack your fists, lining up the two hand-made holes. Place one eye on the padded curl of your hand. Look through that little window, into the narrowed field of vision. This is what I’m talking about. Sometimes life is a lot a lot. The winds (literally and poetically) scatter the world (literally and poetically) around us. Admit your loose ends. Zoom in, find one or two. It’s okay to focus small. To do what you can as one single person and really accept whatever that means.
2. A GIANT BROOM
Last week when fires started to gobble up large swaths of LA, the greater city braced itself. We knew wind gusts could carry flames for miles on end. In response to the threat of sudden combustion, I cleaned up. Cut the tattered striped canopy off its metal frame, gathered leaves into boxes and stashed them in our storage, took down the christmas decor and broke down that stack of moldy cardboard by the side of the house. Anything resembling a potential tinder pile. Then I went over to my neighbor’s house. She’s really a friend I met years before we became neighbors—I don’t see her often but I like knowing she’s just a block away. Under the strange ash cloud sky, I texted her to check in. Within a couple hours I was at her place. Clearing her backyard was much easier than clearing my own. You see, she has two giant brooms. The ones with a wide wooden plank, long handle and short bristles that you can plow forward. Are they officially called push brooms? I love them. What do we need to clear away? Either with an adequate tool or the incredible combo of breath and imagination. Despite the lengthy emotional nature of these first 19 days, we are still at the start of a new year. I believe in my bones the new year really begins in the spring. We are afforded two and a half black box months to experiment with existence. Maybe it’s time to let go of that which no longer serves you. Usher it into a giant compost bin with a bristly push broom.
3. ROSE COLORED GLASSES
Just kidding—or am I? I’m not entirely sure yet. I consider myself an optimist, sometimes with delusion blooming around the edges. A trait inherited directly from my parents. After a lifetime of living with optimists, I can testify for the importance of healthy contrast. Allow reality to show itself. Draw what you can from its many-hued palette. Right now I’m wearing actual rose colored glasses. An Illesteva pair from when I first got a credit card. I didn’t understand that my $800 limit wasn’t FREE MONEY. Can you believe I was raised in the era of no child left behind?? Teach the children debt literacy! Seven years later and I found them while helping Boyfriend search the garage for a specific piece of camera gear. Are these glasses cool? Did I ever wear them? No and not really. But maybe with age I’m finally growing into them. Where did I leave the metaphor—sorry I think I dropped it a few sentences ago. Anyway, maybe we should all have an old pair of rose colored glasses nearby, just don’t plan on making them your main spectacle.
4. AN OLD COTTON OR CANVAS TOTE BAG
We all have one (or 40) sitting around, shoved into crevasses between shelving units or lining the trunk of our car. TikTok (rest in peace?) hyped up consumerism with Get Ready videos and compulsive fit checks. Instead of gunning for the newest carrying vessel, maybe we reach in the back of our closet for an old tote bag. You might find a couple dollars or that camera you’ve been looking for—true story. A tote bag’s worn edges bear a sacred nature. Let’s embrace the passage of time and try to use a single tote bag until it breaks.
5. A CAN OPENER
Chances are good you already have one of these too. Opening a can feels like a small miracle. For one single moment, you are a god. Breaking a seal that without you, would not be broken. Within that aluminum cylinder, a world awaits. A can opener is a feat of engineering, a necessary object. If you need a mood boost, open a can, open your mind, free your heart.
6. A FOREVER STAMP
To those who don’t know, in the U.S. of A. we have something called Forever Stamps. We are certainly not the first country to do this, but our Forever Stamps started in 2007. The Postal Service did everything they could to get the word out, including robotic loudspeaker announcements at grocery stores. BUY TODAY AND USE FOREVER. This slogan floated ominously through the aisles as we compared bottles of unscented laundry detergent. Having a Forever Stamp in your possession feels powerful. In 2014 I bought a sheet of Jimi Hendrix Forever Stamps so I could send out my first EP to indie radio stations. (Yes I had a struggling musician spell, I was young.) You might find Jimi Hendrix stamps to be on the nose for such a purpose, but I loved Jimi unapologetically. Have you ever heard Castles Made of Sand, man? Listen here, waste no time. I never used the full sheet of stamps. I kept the last one as tribute to that time in my life. And now, I love finding it in my box of memory ephemera. So few things are guaranteed, but I like to think that I will be able to press adhesive Jimi onto an envelope whenever I want. Buy today. I can mail a letter and it will get delivered. For once, you can hold the elusive promise of Forever.
They are nice glasses.
Thank you for this. I read it while waiting for a whim to take a walk. I think this was the whim!