Brain Food #584
The passing days
Thoughts of the day
Life is not only about waiting for the key events, but about seeing the in-between moments for what they are: the hard work we put in to reach a goal, reading emails every morning, the cup of coffee we have on a Saturday afternoon with a loved one, writing or reading this newsletter right now (although the ‘now’, in this case, takes on a dual meaning).
Our passing days, seemingly filled not necessarily with insignificance, but without a major milestone, perhaps something we longed for - and how rarely do these things come along - also signify the way we choose to spend our lives. But to remember that this is life itself, “To look life in the face,” as Virginia Woolf wrote, is perhaps a skill that needs to be developed. To remember that life does not lie in a fantasy realm, and not even in the handful of major events that we may be fortunate enough to experience, but in what we make of its misleading insignificance.
Today I wondered What is the worth of a day? Once, a day was long. It was bright and then it wasn’t, meals happened, and school happened, and sports practice, maybe, happened, and two days from this day there would be a test, or an English paper would be due, or there would be a party for which I’d been waiting, it would seem, for years. Days were ages. Love bloomed and died in a day.
— Heidi Julavits
Art marries the imaginary with the real. It can exist when life feels like it is not enough, providing a taste of escapism, of what we can only imagine. Yet, it is always useful to remember that even the most extraordinary of art is made by a person, not much unlike us, in a life that passes, not much unlike ours.
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