Nicola here, rambling a bit today on the subject of too much information. Not in the sense of over-sharing, although there’s plenty of that about too, but simply the huge amount of information that there is online or in the media, about everything. How on earth do you find the things you want to read, listen to or chat about in the middle of all the noise? How is it even possible to find treasure amongst the profusion? This isn’t a rhetorical question. I’d really like to know, because the irony of being overwhelmed is that I actually feel as though I’m missing out.
Just to add to the sense of information overload, yesterday I did something I never imagined myself doing. I set up a newsletter on Substack. Substack is an online publishing platform that reminds me very much of a blog. I’m using it like a blog, publishing articles directly onto the internet because I’ve decided this is the way I want to publish some of my non-fiction historical writing. I could have set up a website, or used an actual blog platform, but this seems much easier. I guess I don’t really need to worry about the differences between a substack and a blog as long as it does what I need.
When a bowl or cup or something valuable is broken, the Japanese have a tradition called kintsukuroi, “golden repair” – the item is put back together with an application of gold that adheres the broken pieces, making the item not only useful again, but with a new beauty as a work of art and a meditation on renewal and growth. It’s a lovely tradition. I’ve tried it myself with a narrow brush and some gilt paint applied to a broken dish or cup. What a wonderful way to save a cracked item and make it very special.
They are made of used flour sacks. My Swedish great-grandfather (on my mother’s side) and his father before him were bakers. It would seem that the best quality flour was delivered in sacks made of the finest type of linen and my great-great-grandmother being frugal apparently used some of them to make sheets for the family. No waste of something that could be repurposed when, perhaps, material was scarce or they didn’t have enough money to buy new. She has sewn them together with the greatest of care and they are incredibly soft. And she added her initials as was usual back then.
