Upheaval

Packing up a houseful of belongings requires thousands of micro-decisions. You look at every piece of clothing, every kitchen utensil, every knick-knack, every household item and decide its fate – keep, bin or donate.

The accumulated effect of all these micro-decisions has for me been a deep fatigue and a retreat from the social whirl. It’s my (introverted) way of regaining strength – we moved in January and I am only now starting to feel recovered.

Towards the end of the move when I couldn’t face sorting out kid’s toys or dress up clothes, I would send in the most ruthless daughter, who without great sentiment would swoop through and clear whole areas in minutes. No agonies of indecision for her.

A helpful film I watched during this time was Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things. It profiled a number of Americans who are questioning our society’s avid consumerism. I was particularly impressed by Courtney Carver, whose multiple sclerosis diagnosis prompted her to simplify her life. She started with de-cluttering her wardrobe and while doing so developed Project 333, which her website describes thus: “Project 333 is the minimalist fashion challenge that invites you to dress with 33 items or less for 3 months.”

The documentary concludes that fewer choices about everyday items, like what to wear, leaves our brain with more resources to make better choices overall. Being constantly offered many choices erodes the brain’s capacity to make choices. I feel this sometimes when faced with a large menu or a shop stuffed to the brim with bargains. It feels like a kind of craziness to be lured by these limitless options.

So moving house was clearly the very definition of upheaval: a violent or sudden change or disruption to something. But maybe, just maybe, the impetus to make better choices will be strengthened by the experience.

Respect

I, Daniel Blake left me in despair. We have become a cruel society in our quest for efficiencies and measurable outputs. Ken Loach focuses his lens on the desperation felt by those of us down on our luck. The systems put in place by government agencies, insurance companies and other corporate giants seem designed to crush the human spirit. And not just the spirit of those accessing services, but also the compassionate nature of their employees, who are bound by rules and hounded by supervisors to tow the company line.

We used to have respect for people who were less fortunate, a “there but for the grace of god” feeling of regard. A seemingly forgotten, though important aspect of respect is the consideration for the feelings, wishes, and rights of others. This has been largely forfeited, replaced by the popular notion that if you work/study/strive/want it hard enough you will be magically rewarded. This idea of meritocracy is dangerous, it allows us to write people off as unworthy, a difficult stance to justify given the wealth distribution statistics. The Oxfam Davos report highlights that “The gap between rich and poor is reaching new extremes. Credit Suisse recently revealed that the richest 1% have now accumulated more wealth than the rest of the world put together… Meanwhile, the wealth owned by the bottom half of humanity has fallen by a trillion dollars in the past five years. This is just the latest evidence that today we live in a world with levels of inequality we may not have seen for over a century.”

Yet I still believe there is enough to go around, though flummoxed by the mechanisms required to make this happen. Surely we can strive to be a respectable society – it is not proper, nor decent that “62 people own the same as half the world”. Perhaps the solution is imminent, the start up world of digital enterprises promises a sharing economy which I hope we can embrace.

Fishing for ideas

Re-watched one of my favourite art films today about Ian Fairweather. It beautifully interweaves scenes of nature with images of his work, so that you imagine the connections between the two and maybe get some insight into his unique way of looking. After his nearly disastrous raft adventure in his early sixties, Fairweather found his home on Bribie Island. At the age of 62 he developed a new painting style that swept critics swooning in its vortex. The comment that struck me today was to do with his lack of interest in the finished work "his path to heaven was in the doing", Betty Churcher said "he painted in a trance-like state".

I was talking about this with a friend recently, about how I am so happy with the satisfaction I gain in the doing, that the result doesn't matter to me. Don't we love it when we discover an echo of ourselves in someone else. I sometimes think that's all we are on the lookout for in life - confirmation of our outlook. So I'm heartened by Fairweather's boldness and late blooming discovery of a winning style. Just a few more years.........