Hello my lovely friend
Is it possible to keep yourself informed and at the same time maintain your equilibrium? That is, keep up with the news, but not lose yourself in the overwhelm? I have always been a person who believes in my responsibility to be informed, to not ignore the news because it’s all doom and gloom. But it’s not just in the content of the news, is it? It’s the way we consume it too.
One of the themes I’ve noticed coming through from the funerals I’ve written, and one of the generational changes that is almost complete now, is the rhythm that the old ways of delivering the news brought to be people’s lives. So many people, when describing their parents to me, talk about their parents’ routines shaped by the news. The gentle morning routine of collecting the paper from the frontyard, sitting down with a cup of tea and a piece of toast, reading the paper front-to-back (or back-to-front if sport was their thing), checking the comic strips and then doing the crossword. The evenings always marked with the sound of the ABC news theme and a quick, ‘Sssh, the news is on.’
Is it really that we are rocketing towards endtimes, or is it that the constancy and consistency (in all sense of the word) of our contemporary newsfeed makes it feel like life is moving faster than ever before towards whatever catastrophic outcome it is we’re heading towards?
For example, my own news consumption begins with a dozen emails from different news organisations already in my inbox when I wake up in the morning, and the interminable scrolling begins and I spend the rest of the day jumping between twitter and facebook and instagram and live news feeds on The Guardian and the ABC, and then the lunchtime emails come and then the early evening ones and really it’s no wonder my mind is so jittery. (And that’s not even taking into account the rage, the white-hot rage whenever I read about or hear our prime minister).
So I’m back to putting my phone down early in the evening, and not picking it up until later in the morning, and finding more ways to quiet my mind, to give it places to settle rather than always seeking the next.
Quietening my mind is mostly about music and books. Listening and reading.
In the mornings, if I’m working at home, I listen to Zan Rowe on Double J. What a treasure she is. She is warm and open, the kind of radio presenter who really does make you feel like you have a friendly companion in your day. She gives brilliant background information and insight to the music she plays, always bringing even greater depth, even more reason to listen closely or to let the music simply seep in. Friday mornings are the best, she brings an extra note of joy and optimism.
Last night, I finished reading Anita Heiss’s Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray. I adore Anita Heiss in the same way I adore Zan Rowe. I think I’ve read every word she’s written ever since I was reading her blog. I was sitting, alone and overwhelmed at my desk in Abu Dhabi, and her warmth and her generosity of spirit always shifted my thinking. Her blog is a ‘gratitude’ blog which I would never be able to pull off because it always felt too cheesy to me, but she made me see the value in articulating what it was you grateful for.
It’s not up to me to tell you what to do, but I think you should read Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray. At first, its form reminded me most of the historical romance novels and family sagas I used to love reading (and always assumed I would write). Although it is a romance, it’s not at all like the historical romance novels I used to read.
It is the story of Wiradyuri woman, Wagadhaany. Like I say, it is a romance, and there are some profoundly beautiful evocations of her love story. It is a story of friendship, but a forced friendship, and it shines a light on the damage done by thoughtless, egocentric friends in the name of good intention. And it is a heartbreaking story of the reality of colonialism and dispossession. There is a dictionary at the back of the book, but in using language throughout the story without drawing attention to it (not using italics, for example), I found myself absorbing the vocabulary without the need to flick back and forth. Highly recommend.
So that’s what I’ve been doing this week. Oh, and this letter is a day late, because I thought I’d make you a FindAWord. I would’ve made a crossword, but they’re really hard to make. I made the FindAWord using an online place and lots of words that made me laugh … but now I’m worried that it was someone nefarious who set up the FindAWord site and they fill in the gaps with horrible words that I can’t see right now, but you’ll see the minute they land in your inbox and then I’d be mortified because instead of helping you to quiet your mind I’d be aggravating it. You never know, that could happen, this is the internet, stranger things have happened. So I am going to try and work out a different way to make and send it to you. I might not have got the FindAWord ready, but I made you a playlist with songs that have come in and out of my week. Looking at it now, I’m not sure it’s all that cohesive, but it made sense at the time.
I hope your week is as peaceful as it can be given all that’s going on (which is a lot).
You are in my thoughts often and with love
Tracy xx