if you have two loaves of bread, do as the Greeks did
Greetings, earthlings.
I write to you from beautiful Town Faire Tire in Williston, Vermont.
My tire pressure lights have been flashing on and off since November–when I paid these guys $800 for brand new tires. It reeks of rubber and chemicals. I didn’t think I’d get this dispatch out this morning, but here I am writing the intro.
The chatter of a sitcom on the TV in waiting room is keeping me focused. The winter sunshine splashing through the giant windows and hitting this vending machine is giving me life:
WORK HARD SNACK OFTEN. Amen, brother.
Here are three things I consumed this week worth sharing:
1. A TikTok that made me smile: Janey and Shirley’s rendition of Miley Cyrus’s Flowers
“I can build my own IKEA.”
2. A quote my friend texted me:
“Longest is the life that contains the largest amount of time-effacing enjoyment.”
—John Muir
3. A thing that came up in a client meeting that I loved: Smokey the Bear Sutra by Gary Snyder
I met with a client/collaborator/friend about a project that can be loosely described as illustrating a manifesto about beans, likely in the style of my red clover comic.
I know, my job is cool as shit.
Smokey the Bear Sutra was one of the references my friend brought up in our meeting. I’d never read this poem before. It reminds me of one of my favorite poems from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Poetry as Insurgent Art:
I am signaling you through the flames. The North Pole is not where it used to be. Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest. Civilization self-destructs. The goddess Nemesis is knocking at the door…
What are poets for in such an age? What is the use of poetry? If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of Apocalyptic times, even if this means sounding apocalyptic. You have to decide if bird cries are cries of ecstasy or cries of despair, by which you will know if you are a tragic or a lyric poet. Conceive of love beyond sex. Be subversive, constantly questioning reality and the status quo. Strive to change the world in such a way that there’s no further need to be a dissident. Read between the lives, and write between the lines. Be committed to something outside yourself. Be passionate about it. But don’t destroy the world, unless you have something better to replace it.
If you would snatch fame from the flames, where is your burning bow, where are your arrows of desire, where your wit on fire?
The master class starts wars. The lower classes fight it. Governments lie. The voice of the government is often not the voice of the people.
Speak up, act out! Silence is complicity. Be the gadfly of the state and also its firefly. And if you have two loaves of bread, do as the Greeks did: sell one with the coin of the realm, and with the coin of the realm buy sunflowers.
Wake up! The world’s on fire!
Have a nice day!
It’s been a busy week!
Last Friday night my friends at Space Gallery and I cohosted a Town Meeting Day zine folding party and a bunch of people showed up! We folded 300 zines in about one hour:
On Saturday I presented at the NOFA-VT annual winter conference (for which I also did the art/branding) about integrating narrative building (read: storytelling) into mission-driven marketing work. This is my professional passion! Here are folks writing out “old narratives” about the food system and the “new narratives” we want to replace the old ones with:
That night at a post-conference cocktail party I had three beers over the course of five hours, which of meant that I couldn’t get out of bed on Sunday because I was so hungover. I genuinely love being in my 30s but I could live without this part.
On Monday night I stayed up too late making these zine displays. On Tuesday I spread them around town. Here’s one at the famous Poppy Cafe:
Within 48 hours, Scout Coffee was out of zines:
This was a fun little project, and perhaps the beta version of a community-based zine distro system?
Thank you for being here!
Christine Tyler Hill
Website: tenderwarriorco.com
Email: tenderwarriorco@gmail.com