The hidden joy of living in interesting times

[TIL #40] Also: a token of gratitude

Folks,

The Tales are back after an interlude that was longer than i had anticipated and i’m delighted to be writing to you again. A warm welcome to new subscribers and greetings to you all. It is a pleasure to have you here and i want to express my gratitude with a small gift (see below).

The cold is settling in for good. During the day, it feels colder inside the house than in the street. There are many reasons to go out: the winter fair, a couple of exhibitions… Brisk walk in the wintry air — red cheeks. I tend to stay away from the news, just checking headlines once or twice a week. May you live in interesting times.

‘May you live in interesting times…’ Sometimes presented as a Chinese curse, the expression seems to originate from 19th-century UK political parlance. It is often used ironically to speak of times of turmoil.

Ours are certainly interesting times in that sense. Everywhere you look, the world appears to be crumbling down in violence, economic disparity and terrifying uncertainty. Choking in an atmosphere of angst, people confusedly grasp to ideologies and worldviews that trigger further violence and aggravate inequalities. We are told that the end is very near and we’ll buy anything that serves as an escape.

Nervous and fearful is the tune that plays on repeat on mainstream loudspeakers, the voices that fashion the dark air du temps. There are, however, things that fly under the radar, things you might call seeds of a better tomorrow.

Thanks to the work and fights of activists, artists and researchers, we’ve come to understand the extent and severity of the harms caused by gender, racialised and class discrimination. We’ve come to understand that patriarchy and colonisation are forces of oppression and mass destruction. We’ve come to understand the need for reparation. We perceive the importance of self-care and mental health. We’re learning. Slowly.

Ours may be times of confusion. Some may not know what to hold on to when institutions, authorities and traditions appear to lose all credibility. Some may find safety in the vicious application of obsolete rules. There is a truth, though, that remains unamplified, a whisper that you won’t hear unless you pay attention, and that is that there is joy and liberation in the dismantling of rusty statues and obsolescent mind structures.

The times are uncertain and disturbing. But in truth we know what to do, don’t we?

On 23rd Nov. in Lisbon, young activists of the Climaximo movement organised a protest against inaction in the face of climate change. Their slogan was a call to ‘stop while we can’ and to ‘break normalcy’.

Participation was low, at about 300 marchers. Downtown on the same day, a much denser crowd gathered for the launch of the Christmas illuminations. In line with recent trends in Western democracies, the march was surrounded by a heavy presence of police in warlike gear, some even openly wearing firearms. A couple of officers were filming the protesters at close range. A team of observers from Amnesty International and, as i like to think, a few photographers contributed to keeping some sort of check on the use of force. No violence erupted even in the moments of tension.

The organisers deployed an impressive sense of organisation and a beautiful energy. While their call was not answered by a multitude, they achieved their objective to occupy a square on one of the main avenues for a couple of hours and the action received a fair amount of media coverage.

Within my small group of photographers, i could sense admiration for the determination of these young protesters and a satisfaction to have taken part in the march.

In another action of playful civil disobedience, the same group recently switched off the Christmas lights in various streets of the city.

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touching the skin of a city

It is a process of importance to me, getting to know the place where i live, exploring layer after layer towards a level of actual familiarity. As a key achievement in this project, i have just released touching the skin of a city, a new ebook in which i present a series of images of urban surfaces that express my growing sense of intimacy with the city of Lisbon.

I’m very happy to announce that, as a gesture of gratitude to my subscribers, i’m offering touching the skin of a city for free until the end of the year. Click here and use the code TILSKIN at checkout (offer valid until 31st Dec. 2024).

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In a combination of texts and photographs, the Tales of Ink and Light are a collection of poems, short stories (fiction or documentary) or essays that explore the strange beauty of our world. From portraits of individual lives to musings on social justice, from travel diaries to an exploration of the intricacies of identity, the Tales are a cauldron of meaning-making. The newsletter is published weekly-ish, one week in English and the other in French as les Contes d’encre et de lumière.

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Thank you for taking part in the Tales of Ink and Light. It’s good to have you on board.

Pierre François D.

P.-S.

Don’t leave without clicking here to get my new ebook touching the skin of a city for free: you simply need to use the code TILSKIN at checkout (offer valid until 31st Dec. 2024).