My semester ended and it seems that the old battle between winter and spring has also come to a close. We've been having extraordinary weather, the ice along the lagoon is breaking up, the tulips and daffodils outside our building are blooming and I'm trying to take in as much of spring as I can before my summer session begins. Unfortunately I have developed this horrible anxiety over the last few years regarding time and trying to use every minute wisely. As a way to counter balance my bad habit, I scanned my bookshelf and pulled out this little gem.
It's time for me to (re)learn the art of a wasted day. This book is a testament of artifice in that it was printed and bound by hand. Nomadic Press designed this limited edition with frankfurt text paper and handset metal types drafted by Frederic Goudy. And, I own number 529 of 725.
My mom gave me this book and I've been carrying it around with me for years but have never actually sat down to read it. This week I finally did. Much of the contents are about friendship and I'm remembering that some of my closest friends are those that have shown me the art of deliciously frittering away time. I plan to pass this book onto one of them after I type out the following quote:
"One thing about the threadbare Socialist regime, grafted onto the old Czech bourgeois heritage: it supported a culture of time wasting, which is the essence of friendship. It felt old fashioned, deeply relaxing as little in contemporary life is. The country had been sustained by its relish for friendship, a life of little consolations--coffee and homemade berry coffee cakes baked in ancient woodstoves, served, crumbling, on chipped china. And the people you wasted time with were, by definition, people of your sort, not because of economic status or even profession. They had the same moral code, the same view of life, so akin it didn't need to be argued. It was as if during the Cold War, especially after 1968, they really did let themselves eat cake--and it helped."
As seen in the photos below, the mood for my brief holiday is about letting the events of the day unfold as they may...and hope that I can take part in the joy of a wasted day. So far it has involved time with S, walks along the coast, reading, listening to music from yesteryears, knitting and tonight baking lemon bars.
You cannot improve on perfect. You are a marvelous use of a life.
ReplyDeleteLiza
ReplyDeleteTime..an arbitrary, unqualified, relative concept of what is really important to be doing?? Your "waste of a day" sounds lovely and certainly added to "my waste of a day". L