E: Experimental By Nature


The Wishbone Alphabet – an experiment, of course, with attitude, life and the eponymous soup.

I use the word ‘experimental’ to embody my approach to life so far. I mean it in an avant-garde rather than scientific sense. In balance, I write a very organised shopping list based on an orderly meal plan; being experimental isn’t a licence to act continuously on impulse. Assessment and learning are part of it too. Or am I being too subjective? Maybe I am simply glamorising contrariness?


I rejected the idea of a regular Saturday job as a youngster, for I valued my time above all material things, so I sat on the beach in my second hand clothes, eating cheap sandwiches. 
I played with the idea of not going to school, not being a fan of rules, but I liked learning so I decided to amble along that path for a while. 
A weekend in Dublin, before starting my exciting degree, produced a daughter. I practised being a mother and then thought it might be a good thing to reintroduce formal education, so I earned myself a teaching degree. 
I then promptly rejected a sensible career, in the spirit of avoiding any further staff room conversations about sell by dates on yoghurt, and finding out what happens when you don’t have a life ruled by a career (turns out you don’t have much money, and can often be consumed by the need to keep a roof over your family’s head, but you can spend time on the beach/in a field, wearing second hand clothes and eating cheap sandwiches.)

It will only be a success if I lie on my deathbed (or futon, or divan, or roadside verge) and feel satisfied. Imagining life closing down, what do I think of? I try it and the preliminary results are encouraging, and rather filmic. 


Comments

PR said…
Lovely post. I love cheap sandwiches, the money can be spent on something so much more exciting! I'm loving your background, did you do that yourself? :)

Universal Gibberish
5 April 2012 at 13:07
Lisa Southard said…
For a moment there Anna I thought you meant background as in personal history! Either way, yes, it's my own work :-) Thank you, and bon appetite with the sandwiches!
5 April 2012 at 13:21
sc morgan said…
My father always used to say, "You only live once, and if you do it right that's all you need." I think you are on the right track. All of us, I suppose, will have some set of regrets, but at least yours won't be that you spent too much time at a dull job. Live life and free.
5 April 2012 at 14:14
Lisa Southard said…
It feels like the right track! Well, it feels like my track, so I'm keen to keep following! :-)
5 April 2012 at 14:29
Suze said…
Which film?
5 April 2012 at 23:57
Lisa Southard said…
Black Cat White Cat - only in Technicolour. I can never have enough Technicolour.
6 April 2012 at 09:07
Anonymous said…
Some things are best left unexamined, but this was better examined.
If that makes any sense. ~Mary
7 April 2012 at 20:24
Lisa Southard said…
And, having examined it, I think it's quite acceptable as a life :-)
8 April 2012 at 14:08
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