I'm sorry, but anyone who can work a Greenland shark into a story about human connection is channeling something unique and special. I loved this piece, its meaning, its message, and the way you describe our world. Thank you for tending the store. It matters.
Ha ha thanks! The thing is, I kinda love those sharks, they look so basic, like they’ve been chiselled from granite by a beginner, and they live for up to 500 years, so when Shakespeare was performing one of those sharks was slowly finning about! Incredible. But I wanted that longevity to juxtapose to the fleeting mess of the narrator. Which is sort of the thing with time and future and past and the all that. Sorry Troy, I know you know all this so I’ve no idea why I’m say it :)
No! I love the insights almost as much as I love Greenland sharks. Also, that description of them is so true and perfect. They are special beings. I hope they outlive us all!
Well, it looks like Troy Putney and Nathan Slake took the wind out of my sails , though I am honored just to be thinking along the same path as these two. Yup,
Greenland Sharks, the longest lived vertebrates on Earth, but they are now on the are “vulnerable” list, where humankind will end up, if we are not already there.
“…please don’t tell me what you think”
“…I mean all that terrible stuff did bring us the life we have today, didn’t it?”
“…a fountain of thoughts erupts in my mind.”
Now use that little zoom knob and focus in on the US of A. Everyday is frightfully nauseating. Good thing I am usually in the outer perimeters of chatter. Ok, got my jeans on today, unfolded, just the way I like’em. Bravo, Jonathan, I love everything about this story. On another note, not jeans related, you need to have a talk with ‘the dog’. I do believe he intentionally unsubscribed me! I found myself and Ranger, left out in the cold, literally. I am guessing ‘someone’ has not been practicing his snow angels, and tried to delete the competition. Tell him, we are back, ‘no one deletes us and gets away with it…’
That's so strange about you being unsubscribed. Sometimes I accidentally unsubscribe because the of closeness the button to the open email button, or something :) Glad you two are back!
Sure , sure, blame it on Ranger. Maybe you two were conspiring against me, didn’t like one of my comments? Neither of you can get rid of me so easily. ’Nobody puts Baby in the corner’ ( Patrick Swayze , from the movie Dirty Dancing ). Don’t ask me why that popped into my head, I will blame it on , pleasantly exhausted and overtired after a full day skiing .
Also Jonathan your Comment Base is incredible — the rarest of rare places where reading through the comments is as fun and thought provoking as the reading itself
There is something special about reading someone’s art and seeing all of the little pieces of the author sprouting into something brand new and often unexpected.
Gorgeous words, Jonathan. Gorgeous piece. Swept away by it.
Many lines to quote, but this one is the one I'm going to choose:
"I look down at my keyboard with all its useless letters that could have been used to speak and think such different words and ideas than the ones being uttered around me."
The despair that builds up gradually is overwhelming yet you manage to shift the whole thing to a palpable ray of hope that sings, not all is lost. I read your piece yesterday and read it again this morning, Jonathan. I want to shout this to the world. Together is a word we will make our banner.
Kurt Vonnegut once wrote an amusing thing (here's a link to a talk he gave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ) about the Shape Of Stories. I reckon "The Jeans Shop" would fit the Man in a hole shape :)
By the way I got the Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community by Malidoma Patrice Somé. Really enjoying it. Thanks :)
I don’t know if you’ll find in the book affirmation for the healing effect of repetitive action. Books sometimes fail to meet our expectations but they might surprise us in myriad different ways.
That's OK, I'm not looking for any affirmation of anything, except perhaps that within every "modern" human is an indigenous soul trying to break out :)
This piece is is breathtaking Jonathan, a delight too, to find in the end that the simple repetitive action of folding jeans held so much more... one can conjure many flights of fancy from an opportunity to meditate - I know well - also lose ones mind under the bright glare of florescent lighting and communal bullshit - I know this too - I left in much the same manner.
A curious mind needs busy hands, not noise...
But wait, there is more... by coincidence, I was reading about Greenland sharks - something brief and factual my son passed to me - but combined with that whole sublime paragraph you stunned me with I remember these lines from the Robert Service poem 'The men that don't fit in'
I love this comment Susie, so much I resonate with and feel too. I do know that poem and always felt an affinity too, the other, the outsider, my people :)
A good friend of mine also said they thought this might be a favourite. I'm so happy you say that. Thanks.
My goodness Jonathan! Stunning, masterful. And the jeans shop in all her shades of blue so perfectly mirrors the watery arctic ascent and salvation. I love feeling these two scenes alongside one another—the ancient and the modern, both alive and calling out to the lost and returning them to the fold.
“struggling with this madness is the most sane response of all, but struggling alone is impossible.”🙏
Your wonderful dream-story brought back a distant memory. Reminded me reading a book in the early 1990s ("You can be happy no matter what" by Richard Carlson, 1992) which I found intensely annoying. I was in a very good academic job, but it felt like death warmed up. I thought there must be something wrong with me; hence read this book, which did indeed seem to confirm there was something wrong with me.
Then I read Cheri Huber's book "There is nothing wrong with you" (1993) which did indeed confirm there was nothing wrong with me.
I know contentment is a state of mind - and in theory one can be content whilst being burnt at the stake. Anyway, I quit my job in 2000 and have explored differing approaches to life ever since but I have not yet tried folding jeans to ease my troubled disposition. I'll let you know how it goes.
Ha! I love the idea of being content whilst being burnt at the stake! Imagine that level of, I'm not even sure what to call it, ultra-self-containment, extreme-immediacy? It's like the utmost monk fantasy :) Thanks Joshua that's such a hilarious and petrifying image.
I've always had real trouble with those kind of books. I've read some but always given up. It was like trying ingratiate oneself with those shallow characters in American films that are referred to as the "Popular Kids" every time (I imagine). I suppose if pushed I'd also lean into anything called "There's Nothing Wrong With You".
One of my favourites here is an excellent writer/poet, Fotini, who writes, Tomasikaki. She recently suggested I read a book called Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community by Malidoma Patrice Somé. I'm just about to begin reading but I think he'll (hope I s'pose) confirm my desire that folding jeans, or any other seemingly pointless and culturally specific activity is calming and meditative as long as it's performed with care and attention. Although having said that maybe the pointlessness is important. Anything performed for a "reason" might just turn out to be dangerous!
I'm with you on quitting and exploring. That's basically my C.V., which seems to less and less attractive to potential employers as the years go by! 🤣
With my level of quitting, in the end the only person insane enough to employ me was myself. Maybe it's a case of "before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood carry water". But I'm suspicious; it's sounds too much like "You can be happy no matter what'.
However, the last geodesic dome greenhouse I made required cutting up 450m of T-bar metal, - angle-grinding, drilling, bending, colour-coding it all into 375 pieces of nine differing lengths. Plus 200 metal discs. And that's just the metal. Never mind 240 triangular windows using 3,000 screws, 45 planks of wood - and 100+ sq.metres of polycarbonate. But I loved every minute of it. 750 hours of repetitive work.
So I'm of the opinion it DOES matter what you do when you get out of bed in the morning. There has to be something that engages the curious creative mind - which is a very personal thing to discover. Right now, I'm in the middle of another 'job change'. The threads of time coursing from my past, and general skill base, are gradually cohering together with a new project.
"With my level of quitting, in the end the only person insane enough to employ me was myself. " Ha ha we're birds of a feather Joshua :)
I agree it matters what you with your day. I guess that's why I think so many if noy most (nearly all) of the "jobs" people are forced into are such a cruel alienating destruction of what might have been in their lives.
Geodesic dome greenhouses sound fascinating. Have you written about this?
I used to feel insanely jealous when someone said to me "I love my job", or, "I'm getting paid to do what I love doing". Perhaps, I mused, I lack a general love of life { :) } but I best find those wonderful rare moments of joy, peace and contentment when in the creative process.
and my general story (which maybe I pointed to before, can't remember, don't feel obliged to read) but it can be found via a Substack interview with Unbekoming here: https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/the-journey
I'm sorry, but anyone who can work a Greenland shark into a story about human connection is channeling something unique and special. I loved this piece, its meaning, its message, and the way you describe our world. Thank you for tending the store. It matters.
Ha ha thanks! The thing is, I kinda love those sharks, they look so basic, like they’ve been chiselled from granite by a beginner, and they live for up to 500 years, so when Shakespeare was performing one of those sharks was slowly finning about! Incredible. But I wanted that longevity to juxtapose to the fleeting mess of the narrator. Which is sort of the thing with time and future and past and the all that. Sorry Troy, I know you know all this so I’ve no idea why I’m say it :)
No! I love the insights almost as much as I love Greenland sharks. Also, that description of them is so true and perfect. They are special beings. I hope they outlive us all!
Well, at this rate ;)
Hehe, I had much the same thought. I was only just reading about Greenland sharks the other day, and now here one finds its way into a story.
Well, it looks like Troy Putney and Nathan Slake took the wind out of my sails , though I am honored just to be thinking along the same path as these two. Yup,
Greenland Sharks, the longest lived vertebrates on Earth, but they are now on the are “vulnerable” list, where humankind will end up, if we are not already there.
“…please don’t tell me what you think”
“…I mean all that terrible stuff did bring us the life we have today, didn’t it?”
“…a fountain of thoughts erupts in my mind.”
Now use that little zoom knob and focus in on the US of A. Everyday is frightfully nauseating. Good thing I am usually in the outer perimeters of chatter. Ok, got my jeans on today, unfolded, just the way I like’em. Bravo, Jonathan, I love everything about this story. On another note, not jeans related, you need to have a talk with ‘the dog’. I do believe he intentionally unsubscribed me! I found myself and Ranger, left out in the cold, literally. I am guessing ‘someone’ has not been practicing his snow angels, and tried to delete the competition. Tell him, we are back, ‘no one deletes us and gets away with it…’
That's so strange about you being unsubscribed. Sometimes I accidentally unsubscribe because the of closeness the button to the open email button, or something :) Glad you two are back!
I still think Benny had something to do with it…
The Snow Angel Subterfuge and other crime capers...
Same thing happened with Coincidence Speaks! Must be Ranger keeping you on your toes.
Sure , sure, blame it on Ranger. Maybe you two were conspiring against me, didn’t like one of my comments? Neither of you can get rid of me so easily. ’Nobody puts Baby in the corner’ ( Patrick Swayze , from the movie Dirty Dancing ). Don’t ask me why that popped into my head, I will blame it on , pleasantly exhausted and overtired after a full day skiing .
Oh man, I'd love a full day skiing!!
I’d love to get Baby out of the corner!
Tears form as I read this. I love the way you write- thank you 🙏
That’s wonderful and encouraging thing to say Suberbia, thanks
A wonderful piece of writing!
Thanks so much Karen, glad you get something out of this :)
Also Jonathan your Comment Base is incredible — the rarest of rare places where reading through the comments is as fun and thought provoking as the reading itself
I agree Eric, there are so many beautiful, engaged/ing people commenting here and I'm so lucky and grateful for that. Yourself included of course :)
There is something special about reading someone’s art and seeing all of the little pieces of the author sprouting into something brand new and often unexpected.
Thanks so much Eric. Unexpected is good :)
Gorgeous words, Jonathan. Gorgeous piece. Swept away by it.
Many lines to quote, but this one is the one I'm going to choose:
"I look down at my keyboard with all its useless letters that could have been used to speak and think such different words and ideas than the ones being uttered around me."
That's a real writers choice there Nathan, thanks so much :)
Just wonderful -- ans so needed.
Thanks Jan :)
Brilliant that you include the audio!!! Stops me staring at the screen
The despair that builds up gradually is overwhelming yet you manage to shift the whole thing to a palpable ray of hope that sings, not all is lost. I read your piece yesterday and read it again this morning, Jonathan. I want to shout this to the world. Together is a word we will make our banner.
Kurt Vonnegut once wrote an amusing thing (here's a link to a talk he gave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ) about the Shape Of Stories. I reckon "The Jeans Shop" would fit the Man in a hole shape :)
By the way I got the Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community by Malidoma Patrice Somé. Really enjoying it. Thanks :)
I don’t know if you’ll find in the book affirmation for the healing effect of repetitive action. Books sometimes fail to meet our expectations but they might surprise us in myriad different ways.
I am off now to listen to Kurt :)
That's OK, I'm not looking for any affirmation of anything, except perhaps that within every "modern" human is an indigenous soul trying to break out :)
I have a looong list of such books :)
Ha ha, that's why we're in the same tribe ;)
I think there are many more out there. I hope there are!
This piece is is breathtaking Jonathan, a delight too, to find in the end that the simple repetitive action of folding jeans held so much more... one can conjure many flights of fancy from an opportunity to meditate - I know well - also lose ones mind under the bright glare of florescent lighting and communal bullshit - I know this too - I left in much the same manner.
A curious mind needs busy hands, not noise...
But wait, there is more... by coincidence, I was reading about Greenland sharks - something brief and factual my son passed to me - but combined with that whole sublime paragraph you stunned me with I remember these lines from the Robert Service poem 'The men that don't fit in'
"And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race"
I'm sure you know it already but here is a link!
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58012/the-men-that-dont-fit-in
Its hard to decide, but this might be a new favourite - Thank you! 🙏🏼
I love this comment Susie, so much I resonate with and feel too. I do know that poem and always felt an affinity too, the other, the outsider, my people :)
A good friend of mine also said they thought this might be a favourite. I'm so happy you say that. Thanks.
I had a hunch you would !
The way you weave existential weight into something as simple as folding jeans is just stunning. Absolutely haunting and beautiful.
Thanks Nazish, it's so great when something I'm trying to do actually lands :) Thanks for reading and commenting, glad you enjoyed this.
My goodness Jonathan! Stunning, masterful. And the jeans shop in all her shades of blue so perfectly mirrors the watery arctic ascent and salvation. I love feeling these two scenes alongside one another—the ancient and the modern, both alive and calling out to the lost and returning them to the fold.
“struggling with this madness is the most sane response of all, but struggling alone is impossible.”🙏
I love the repeating themes in this too. Not sure if you noticed but for fun I weaved in a few lines from the interview, sort of echos :)
I did notice that! Was a sweet remembering. ;)
What a clever piece Jonathan. The judgement turned teacher. Such a rich piece, as always. The characters, their voice—
this message.
That's such a great way put it, "judgement turned teacher". Thanks, Síodhna.
Wow! I shared this with friends. 🙏
Thank you Michaela!
Your wonderful dream-story brought back a distant memory. Reminded me reading a book in the early 1990s ("You can be happy no matter what" by Richard Carlson, 1992) which I found intensely annoying. I was in a very good academic job, but it felt like death warmed up. I thought there must be something wrong with me; hence read this book, which did indeed seem to confirm there was something wrong with me.
Then I read Cheri Huber's book "There is nothing wrong with you" (1993) which did indeed confirm there was nothing wrong with me.
I know contentment is a state of mind - and in theory one can be content whilst being burnt at the stake. Anyway, I quit my job in 2000 and have explored differing approaches to life ever since but I have not yet tried folding jeans to ease my troubled disposition. I'll let you know how it goes.
Ha! I love the idea of being content whilst being burnt at the stake! Imagine that level of, I'm not even sure what to call it, ultra-self-containment, extreme-immediacy? It's like the utmost monk fantasy :) Thanks Joshua that's such a hilarious and petrifying image.
I've always had real trouble with those kind of books. I've read some but always given up. It was like trying ingratiate oneself with those shallow characters in American films that are referred to as the "Popular Kids" every time (I imagine). I suppose if pushed I'd also lean into anything called "There's Nothing Wrong With You".
One of my favourites here is an excellent writer/poet, Fotini, who writes, Tomasikaki. She recently suggested I read a book called Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community by Malidoma Patrice Somé. I'm just about to begin reading but I think he'll (hope I s'pose) confirm my desire that folding jeans, or any other seemingly pointless and culturally specific activity is calming and meditative as long as it's performed with care and attention. Although having said that maybe the pointlessness is important. Anything performed for a "reason" might just turn out to be dangerous!
I'm with you on quitting and exploring. That's basically my C.V., which seems to less and less attractive to potential employers as the years go by! 🤣
With my level of quitting, in the end the only person insane enough to employ me was myself. Maybe it's a case of "before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood carry water". But I'm suspicious; it's sounds too much like "You can be happy no matter what'.
However, the last geodesic dome greenhouse I made required cutting up 450m of T-bar metal, - angle-grinding, drilling, bending, colour-coding it all into 375 pieces of nine differing lengths. Plus 200 metal discs. And that's just the metal. Never mind 240 triangular windows using 3,000 screws, 45 planks of wood - and 100+ sq.metres of polycarbonate. But I loved every minute of it. 750 hours of repetitive work.
So I'm of the opinion it DOES matter what you do when you get out of bed in the morning. There has to be something that engages the curious creative mind - which is a very personal thing to discover. Right now, I'm in the middle of another 'job change'. The threads of time coursing from my past, and general skill base, are gradually cohering together with a new project.
"With my level of quitting, in the end the only person insane enough to employ me was myself. " Ha ha we're birds of a feather Joshua :)
I agree it matters what you with your day. I guess that's why I think so many if noy most (nearly all) of the "jobs" people are forced into are such a cruel alienating destruction of what might have been in their lives.
Geodesic dome greenhouses sound fascinating. Have you written about this?
I used to feel insanely jealous when someone said to me "I love my job", or, "I'm getting paid to do what I love doing". Perhaps, I mused, I lack a general love of life { :) } but I best find those wonderful rare moments of joy, peace and contentment when in the creative process.
You can view a picture of the geodesic greenhouse in our garden on my other other Substack channel here: https://joshuabondyarnshifting.substack.com/p/yarnshifting-chapter-7
and my general story (which maybe I pointed to before, can't remember, don't feel obliged to read) but it can be found via a Substack interview with Unbekoming here: https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/the-journey