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
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Contact Pants Conundrum

Image
There is weather today, I do note it: take a few moments to reckon the size of a cloud (big) and the frequency of rain (sporadic.) Centre of my interest though is a stack of magazines. Not the fashion kind. This is martial arts research. I'm not even sure what it is I'm looking for, but intuition calls loud. A range of old adverts skew some amusement. Contact pants, for example. Pants are not trousers where I come from. They are underwear. Professional contact pants: improved smirk value. But why would a person be likely to purchase a grappling hook and a lock pick set? For specialists and hobbyists only, the blurb assures. Guidance on the pheromone spray that attracts women against their better judgement? I doubt it works any more proficiently than the mysterious potion that defines your muscles while you sleep. But, then: I wonder is some sprayed on this paper? What was my intuition thinking, making this ghastly shout… Tea break time. There's a lot of words
Read more

A Candle Lit

Image
We live by the light of those we love, whether they are here or gone. That light is inextinguishable. To have the light and not the company is an adjustment process we call grief. Loss is a shadow, equal to the light. We adjust not to lose the shadow but to see both. Hard to bear - yet without darkness, light cannot show its full wonder. Let us look after each other, then, and value our days, our company, and live to leave vast shadows, and understand that pain is a strange gift, a tender, haunting, purposed gift. And if you are grieving: let your tears flow, let your anger shout, let yourself plead and deny and feel terrible: it is not an easy process.  Know that other people know grief.  Know that other people are hurt to see you grieve.  Know that love is a fundamental response. There is no time limit to this adjustment process. No right or wrong way to feel. One day you will stand back and see that the shadow is proof to the strength of the light, a
Read more

Spring Is Ticking

Image
It has been a while since I wrote a blog post - I have been writing books, and keeping a diary, the days and the work aren’t lost, just ticking quietly in a corner. [There’s a little dust in that corner but the shelf is made of strong oak planks, and the light is enchanting. A plant grows in a pot, it spouts leaves. A half candle stands in a china holder.] At Paddock Garden (properly titled Paddock Garden Orchards, I am a lazy typer) a tree corral has been constructed. It contains persimmons which may not have survived the recent cold blasts and heavy rain, along with some happy pepper trees, bladdernuts, and plum yews. We plan to underplant and interplant extensively in this concentrated area. Around the grounds also we have begun some windbreak hedges, mostly of elaeagnus and hazel. We have a line of sapling native oaks edging the spinney. The first of our camping bay areas is growing emerald grass that was seeded last autumn; the second has recently been seeded; the last three need
Read more