Porto.
14 May 2014
7 May 2014
No more pink princess crap
when i was child princess/pink was huge in advertising. girl = princess. i was fortunate to be friends with my older brother who kindly and automatically included in activities like building and that is exactly what i wanted to spend my life doing. quietly building. and now as adult there are few things i like more than to focus my mind on building something, whether products for our customers with our team, company plans, large scale painting, planning installations in woods, or to see what others are working on.
to feel confident in anything is to have engaged in struggle to master. that in my opinion is what success looks like. willful engagement with struggle for the benefit of learning how. girls do that naturally when they're given the opportunity.
tomboy as a term for girls who happen to like doing the things i did as a girl, yes its a term but nothing i was doing felt boyish to me. it felt me-ish. as in, yeah i like to do this and why the hell not. this is life and this is on the menu. most of lifes enjoyments have nothing to do with anything but personality and taste and what percentage exactly has to do with gender? - well i dont know and how are we going to quantify that! it is going to vary so much from person to person so what is the answer here. human beings are different and also alike. i've met extraordinary kindness in men and extraordinary kindness in women. i want to rise to that, i want to know how to deserve that. what else matters, i am not sure. you know what i'm saying.
in terms of princess, not that there is anything wrong with princess, and princess is pretty great in terms of the outfit, but what exactly is she doing/focusing on? what is so advantageous about being that title in particular. does she have ruling power ultimately? in more than just the lower courts? also is she waiting to be queen or what. whats the plan here.
But you know the idea that girls automatically gravitate to princess - yes modern advertising is a powerful thing. it can get adults to reach for things as well. to see more examples of this look at the remarkable power of advertising in another area: Anti-Age. the idea that the passage of time is something to be 'fixed' via buying a little jar of cream. there is nothing wrong with little jar of cream, they can be really nice and why not. but age of course is a natural occurrence that happens to every living being on the planet. to the little song birds. to the trees. even to the baby. and is the baby ashamed of that? no. the baby doesn't need to fool around with that! the baby is busy doing other things. as it should be. get back to playing baby and dont worry about it! to be convinced to be ashamed of aging is not natural, and not worth a damn. the purpose of aging is to gain experience, wisdom, to advance and to figure out how to share, how to give something true to another. it is the ultimate opportunity.
lastly the cultural significance of the color pink is fascinating, to see what modern advertising has done to that color through promotion and repetition of an idea is incredible. pink itself is a color. you know what im saying. its not inclusive or exclusive. human beings can love this color...it is a beautiful color. how could it not be. and it is infinite to look at color. one can spend whole life just looking at color and what a life.
how to choose one color to say it is the one about girls.
all of them, i choose them all.
to feel confident in anything is to have engaged in struggle to master. that in my opinion is what success looks like. willful engagement with struggle for the benefit of learning how. girls do that naturally when they're given the opportunity.
tomboy as a term for girls who happen to like doing the things i did as a girl, yes its a term but nothing i was doing felt boyish to me. it felt me-ish. as in, yeah i like to do this and why the hell not. this is life and this is on the menu. most of lifes enjoyments have nothing to do with anything but personality and taste and what percentage exactly has to do with gender? - well i dont know and how are we going to quantify that! it is going to vary so much from person to person so what is the answer here. human beings are different and also alike. i've met extraordinary kindness in men and extraordinary kindness in women. i want to rise to that, i want to know how to deserve that. what else matters, i am not sure. you know what i'm saying.
in terms of princess, not that there is anything wrong with princess, and princess is pretty great in terms of the outfit, but what exactly is she doing/focusing on? what is so advantageous about being that title in particular. does she have ruling power ultimately? in more than just the lower courts? also is she waiting to be queen or what. whats the plan here.
But you know the idea that girls automatically gravitate to princess - yes modern advertising is a powerful thing. it can get adults to reach for things as well. to see more examples of this look at the remarkable power of advertising in another area: Anti-Age. the idea that the passage of time is something to be 'fixed' via buying a little jar of cream. there is nothing wrong with little jar of cream, they can be really nice and why not. but age of course is a natural occurrence that happens to every living being on the planet. to the little song birds. to the trees. even to the baby. and is the baby ashamed of that? no. the baby doesn't need to fool around with that! the baby is busy doing other things. as it should be. get back to playing baby and dont worry about it! to be convinced to be ashamed of aging is not natural, and not worth a damn. the purpose of aging is to gain experience, wisdom, to advance and to figure out how to share, how to give something true to another. it is the ultimate opportunity.
lastly the cultural significance of the color pink is fascinating, to see what modern advertising has done to that color through promotion and repetition of an idea is incredible. pink itself is a color. you know what im saying. its not inclusive or exclusive. human beings can love this color...it is a beautiful color. how could it not be. and it is infinite to look at color. one can spend whole life just looking at color and what a life.
how to choose one color to say it is the one about girls.
all of them, i choose them all.
6 May 2014
The Way
I'm watching "The Way" 2 days after I did "El Camino de Santiago de Compostela" myself, and I don't know if I should laugh or cry!... I'm doing both.
It was without a doubt one of the greatest shits I've done in life.
"The Way is a very personal journey"
- that is the ultimate truth, and, as in all journeys of life, it's also a thing you will never, ever understand unless you do it (not mean to be rude, it's just the way some "things" work). Quite impossible to describe and I don't think I'm gonna try.
Feeling more blessed than ever.
Short and assertive
All little girls should be encouraged to be smart, strong, brave, funny, caring and creative.
No more pretty princess crap.
No more pretty princess crap.
5 May 2014
3 Ways To Be More Sustainable, by Sabrina Meijer
Thought I'd share this post written by Sabrina about an issue I've approaching somehow here...
Last week I spent a couple of days in Copenhagen to attend the Fashion Summit,
an event on sustainability in fashion that takes place every other
year. Most of us – including me – don’t really think too much when
buying clothes.
Of course I don’t buy clothes just for
the sake of buying them, I do think about whether I am actually going to
wear them (duhh). But I have to admit I don’t always think about the
many hands on the other side of the line… And for example the amount of
water that is used to make a simple t-shirt. Or a heavily washed pair of
denim.
While at the Summit, I realized ‘being sustainable’ is a
very very relative concept. Because what is sustainability exactly? And
how sustainable does one need to be to be called sustainable?
H&M for example has their Conscious Collections,
which I feel is a great initiative. But at the same time they produce
humongous amounts of normal collections each year. Is it really
necessary to have new things in store each week?
The Summit left me with questions – which I believe is a good thing –
and also made think a bit more conscious about the things I can do as
an individual. Little things.
1. I don’t buy in bulk. No, this is not my best 5
Piece French Wardrobe season, but these adventures do definitely help me
think (way!) more consciously before I make any purchases. Excessive
consumerism is never a good thing, neither are unworn clothes with their
tags still on.
2. I try to not waste anything (fabric in this
case). To be able to understand which items in my wardrobe get worn the
least, I turn around all hangers and turn them back whenever I wear
something. Anything that’s still turned around by the end of the year
(they deserve a chance in each four seasons), they have to go out. I
either take them to a second hand store, sell them online or – when
there’s holes or stains (like old socks) – I try to collect them all in a
bag and take them to H&M for their recycling bins.
3. I only wash when necessary and never tumble dry.
Also, I very rarely iron. I would rather put a silk top or shirt in the
bathroom while I am taking a hot shower than take the iron out.
When you buy your clothes, do you ever think of where they come from?
Who made them? How they were made? What happens when you wash 7 times a
week? Let’s discuss!
30 April 2014
29 April 2014
Back in the days
"You don't know how heavy I must have been to become this empty."
Alijó, Pinhão, Douro.
More here and here.
