This weekend was particularly calming, grounding and inspiring.
Calming and grounding: Long walks in the morning and late afternoon with my partner and our dog in places we don’t often walk.
Grounding: We watched „Nomadland“ for the first time on Saturday. After watching the film, I felt a bit anxious, especially thinking about getting older and being alone.
Interestingly, this (Sunday) morning I read a quote by Gabor Maté:
„Safety is not a question of a lack of threat. Safety is the presence of connection.“
Gabor Maté
This let me think of my anxiety the night before. And of the importance of community and connection for the „nomads“ in the film and for people in general.
Aside from the anxiety, the film was grounding for me as it shows life stripped to the bone. It makes you think about the essential things in life and made me feel grateful for the life I have.
Inspiring: I love my weekend feed on my favourite feed reader „Feedly“. The Marginalian newsletter was particularly inspiring again with an article about evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis and her book „Symbiotic Planet“.
Also inspiring was the BBC World Book Club podcast episode with Jennifer Egan about her book „A visit from the Goon Squad“, which I am currently re-reading. One of my favourite books ever.
The „Knowledge“ section in the German weekly newspaper „Die Zeit“ was also very inspiring, especially an article about the philosopher Rosi Braidotti and the concept of the posthuman. I was impressed by the idea of affirmative ethics. Interestingly, one of her quotes is „We are all nomads“.
I immediately ordered two books by her to dive deeper into the idea of the posthuman. There will also be an exhibition on this topic at Marta Herford Museum in June.