The Bridge #68
overly other-centric
Hello
So glad you’re here :) It’s a pleasure learning together.
Something Friendly
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Something to Enjoy
It was a rainy grey day, perfect for bittersweet musings. My partner was going to be working later, a part-time job she’s taken up in order to find better balance in her life. I’d recently celebrated my birthday. She put on some music we hadn’t listened to in a while, and it brought back memories. When we’d lived in Brooklyn she often wanted to listen to French-language artists, and it was always a discovery for me. For her it was a connection to home; for me it was a playful ride down someone else’s memory lane. Now though, we live in France together, and the music is there but we don’t think about it the same way. Adjusting to our new context, I’ve been the one needing musical comfort. So I’m more often dictating the playlist. I have appreciated the care my partner has given to me. It’s nice though spending time remembering when the shoe was on the other foot. My partner needing the care.
Matthieu Chedid is a French singer-songwriter who’s won many awards. Before he was -M-, he was a shy somewhat overweight kid. He developed his own unique style and it’s very distinctive. With that success, he acquired a platform. & with that platform he’s chosen (like artists before him) to expand the minds of his listeners with an exploration of the musical landscape of Mali. The kora, a 21-string lute-harp, is played by a musician famous in Mali and beyond, Toumani Diabate. The song explores ways to bridge cultures in the aftermath of disastrous violence. There is music. There is hope.
By wanting to change the world /
It's the world that changed him.
Something to Explore
Designing Action for the 21st centure: Living Futures (Danish Design Center)
What if this moment – a moment when we are at our most fragile – is the very moment to act? Design is not a formula for perfection. But it is an approach to shaping concrete solutions to our most urgent challenges. It is a catalyst for action.
The Danish Design Center (DDC) encourages concrete imagining of our very-near futures with a toolkit of scenarios. Choose between four different possible “worlds” and discover descriptions of what life might be like. Then listen to or read short testimonies (invented) of people living in those worlds, to anticipate better how changes in our world today might impact how we live tomorrow.
The future is very difficult to predict, but it becomes easier to discuss when we take the time to imagine.
Something to Consider
Be generous. Help others. Listen.
These are important skills, worth cultivating.
The values the advice encourages are good.
It’s interesting though to consider the times when we are already a person who gives, who shares. We’ve become selfless by default.
We care so much about others.
Might we then forget sometimes to care for ourselves?
Might we fail to appreciate our own value.
When we live to serve, then might it be better to hear other advice…
Take time for yourself. Speak up. What you have is precious; consider carefully who you share it with. It’s OK to be selfish a little bit.
Take care,
JPC 😎