It’s a way of thinking, a way of looking at the world, a way of living. A small community of artists – and I would dare say they include some who, strictly speaking, are neither painter nor writer or photographer but, instead, artists at living – have created a kind of quiet manifesto to celebrate their take on what they find beautiful and valuable in their lives. Kinfolk is a magazine and a blog about sharing the pleasures of life within a like-minded community. It is graphically lovely. It is emotionally strong. It is other, standing courageously against the flow of fast paced, future focused, unconscious lifetyle. Within its covers you smell a cup of freshly brewed coffee, taste the warmth of sun on picked berries, hear layers of laughter and conversation around a picnic table, feel the comfort of friendship.
No, it’s not much of a source on where and what to do. It is more about the how, and it’s a how that many of us may have forgotten all about.
Blogging is easy when you are in wifi and have the time; it is hard otherwise. Africa doesn't lend itself well to blogging as, so often, one is out of internet reach. So much the better, as one can find the time and quiet space to read.
I have just returned from Kenya - another gratifying, deeply fulfilling link in a chain of life experiences there. Part of the pleasure comes from the need to unplug. I carried books with me, not tablets, and had a gorgeous time reading. Two of the books I would like to pass on, and each is completely different from the other.
Life is Meals, by Kay and James Salter (he is a wonderful writer whose other works are required reading), is about the joy of food and the sharing of meals. It is anecdotal, historically fascinating, recipe rich and inspiring. I am determined to find a balance in my life, reintroducing the breaking of bread with friends - humbly, deliciously, formally and informally - creating dinners and lunches of carefully thought-out, creative, locally grown menus to share with a sympathetic, interesting, diverse guest list.
The other book is Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures) True Stories From a War Zone, by three authors who are all colleagues and friends - Cain, Postlewait and Thomson - that takes you, with huge honesty, into the lives of the three UN workers in the most harrowing parts of the world. How far away are the wines and delicious dinners of the Salters' as described in Life is Meals!
I am always struck by how we, as travellers, are able to segue with ease between culture. Within 24 hours we move from the bush to New York City..cheetah atop a termite mound to jack russel in Central Park, matatu to big apple cab... with such ease. The pleasures and the pains so beautifully explicated in the above books speak to the same dichotomy we hold within ourselves.
We must not apologize for, but recognize, the dark and the light, the pain and the pleasure. We must accept our multiselves. It takes travel, often, to bring the two into close proximity, into a shared focus.
I believe it is important.
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