Loathing perfection, yet adoring beauty.

 

Yesterday I was very happy to be there in my flat in Bavaria when the carollers came along and blessed the house. Glued the blessing over my front door. 

Later I choose a motto for 2025, a quote out of Nabil Fanous book "The Universal Rules of Life":

It is Rule 1:  "Do it now, perfect it later." 

He meant me, I am quite sure. And of cause he is right: "Intentions aren't the same as action." So I spare you my New Year's resolutions. I have them - but if they only exist in my head or my heart I shall keep my mouth shut. (Haha - that's one of my New Year's resolutions: I talk too much - that takes away a lot of energy - mine, and that of others). 

I always admire people in films: taciturn and wise they LISTEN to the other one and only utter one wise half-sentence in 15 minutes. My only excuse: I worked as a councillor - and in my long life I listened 30.000 hours (!) to 30.000 young people. Which I did with high interest, really - but after that I took a deep breath and started to talk more myself - and now I train myself to listen - again). 

I wish all of you a good start in 2025! 

Merry Christmas!

 

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Stay healthy (or become healthy), be happy and content, and I send you my very best wishes for 2025. 

Yours Truly,  and Toodle Pip,      

Britta 

PS: You see our Bavarian village square with the church in the background. 

Hindsight...

 Dear You, 

I fear that I tried to bite off more than I can chew - to write everyday a post is too much for me (especially in the days before Christmas) - and evidently for you too: we all have so many things to do!  

I will return to normal posting and use the time to read and comment yours, to follow my many interests and tasks - in short: have a good time. 

And that is what I wish for you too: a very good time, stay healthy, don't overdo the preparations for Christmas - just enjoy! 

Yours truly,   Britta  

Very sweet "Kitsch"

 

Dear You, 

I love Japan and the relaxing atmosphere of calmness in their houses. 

To create calmness in a room, one needs space and order.  As dear William Morris said "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful", (I love "or believe to be" - so undogmatic!).

Yet sometimes I need a little bit of heartwarming "Kitsch". 

I smile when I see my very kitsch cat-bank - it has two 'golden' bells in its paws which wobble when I put money into the bank. The cat sits fat on a little silk cushion and smiles (in a minimalist's way). 

So: A little bit of kitsch: fine. But one has to beware of too much. 

"Beguiling beauty - Betörend schön: Chinese reverse glass paintings from the Mei-Lin Collection" in Munich

 

Dear You, 

yesterday I finally succeeded to visit the exhibition "Betörend schön" - Beguiling beauty" Chinese reverse glass paintings from the Mei-Lin Collection" in the grand old Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich.

Reverse glass painting was adopted from Europe to China in the 18th century.   

Specialised studios painted on the back of glass or mirrors - and the colours become especially bright and radiant. 

"So-called 'shinü hua' (...) are among the established themes of Chinese painting and often associated with seduction and the world of the courtesans" - write the curators of the exhibition and ask themselves - and us - "What makes a woman beautiful?" - and answer evasively with "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder". You bet. 

Shown are 70 works from the Mei - Lin Collection (Rupprecht Mayer and his wife Haitang Mayer-Liem - they hunted them in antique shops and on flea markets in Peking (Beijing) in the 80's. 

I loved the exhibition. Well represented, completed with gowns and shoes etc. 

Well, well, well: the shoes... In my home city Bremen, where the "Übersee- Museum" displayed all the treasures that captains and rich merchants had brought home from Africa and all the world (I wonder how they deal with those treasures nowadays), I saw those tiny shoes and shuddered... the feet of the poor women were bounded from earliest youth to keep them crippled. 

Those women (even in the 19th century it was done!) could not walk on those feet, size of a baby foot - they were transported in litters, and men thought it very sexy and the forced gait of it, so I read in a novel, were good for circulation - everywhere... 

And I saw those very very long nails of all the depicted women (shuddering again - yet I see them nowadays too when I travel by train - on young women!) 

One meaning, of course, is: "I don't have to work". Another ... a special group of men will be able to work that out in a second.  

In the left edge of the display above you see jewelled "nail protectors". 

There is a lot more to tell about the exhibition, but I see you look a bit weary. Sorry! 

(Want a little scratch to become wide awake again?) 

 

  

My teeny weeny little new coffee machine

 

Dear You,

if I were free to show you photos of the triplets when they  opened their presents on St.Nick's Day - having polished all their shoes so well that Shunmyo Masuno, the Zen Priest would be convinced of their "radiant hearts through cleaning", I would be happy - but of course I do understand the wish for privacy. 

So I show you another cute thing instead: the Melitta "Aromaboy". 

Because I drink only one cup of coffee in the morning, I bought the tiniest coffee maker of Germany: you can only prepare two normal cups with it. 

Wonderful! Quick! Delicious! And: no waste.

But a lot of fun, if you take this teeny weeny little coffee pot into your hands! 

PS: Today I came back from a trip Munich, thus I am a bit tired. I promise something "substantial" for tomorrow.   

Matt Haig: The Midnight Library

 

Dear You, 

this is what I read at the moment. 

I love Matt Haig's fascinating idea: to be able to test different lives that would have been the result of not choosing the one option you actually took. 

Consequences of choices that one made - or didn't take. 

Makes me think a lot ... what would have been if... 

On the other hand - to stay content and sane - my motto is: 

"Yesterday is over and the door to tomorrow is still closed. Today is all you (really) have."