Can you have more than one home?
I love Edinburgh.
Not like a box of Milk Tray and a bunch of flowers from the garage on Valentine's Day. It's more of a deep wrench of longing to consume and be consumed. I grew up in Edinburgh; it's where I'm from.
It's also, unquestionably, a beautiful city.
This month I was able to spend some days there and, lucky me, they were of the bright spring variety. I walked for miles every day and I looked and listened and my heart sang.
I felt at home.
What makes me, me?
I feel different in Edinburgh, but I recognise that I am essentially the same person. I think about the same sort of things, eat the same kind of food, choose to do similar activities as I do elsewhere. Like, looking at art. That took up quite a chunk of my time.
What would it be like to have wings?
Angus Og, God of Love and Courtesy, Putting a Spell of Summer Calm on the Sea
by John Duncan, 1908.
In the National Gallery of Scotland I was quite taken by this chap.
I like that his wings are tied on by a ribbon.
Is art good for the soul?
I saw these three paintings by Picasso in the National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two:
Mother and Child (1902)
Lee Miller (1937)
Bouteille et Verre sur un Table (1912)
I've found out since that it was Picasso who said, “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” That makes sense to me.
It's particularly a close description of my experience of looking at Mother and Child (above). Even in the moment, I wondered what it was about that painting that so moved me. A sense of beauty and of my own relation to the subject were part of it. Also recognition of something known that was also a novel experience, and high esteem for the artist. There was surprise in the mix - I didn't know I was going to see a Picasso. And there was something about being so close to it and it not being behind glass.
But I tried not to analyse too much. I wanted to be rinsed clean by the looking.
What's more important, the question or the answer?
Apparently Picasso also said “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." I'm less sure that I agree with him there, but I'm interested in the implication that answers aren't necessarily to be held in the highest regard. It's the questions that interest me, where they come from and how they frame our thinking.
In my week off I spent time walking, looking, thinking: wandering, wondering, asking questions. And I noticed that these are essentially the same core activities as in my work life, facilitating philosophical enquiry and creative writing workshops.
But all the same, it was a lovely holiday, to be back home in Edinburgh.
Is Edinburgh the most beautiful city?
Or perhaps I'm a bit biased?
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