“A thing of beauty is a joy forever”

At such an ugly time as this, beauty is all the more vital and relieving. Wherever you see beauty, it’s important to appreciate it and be conscious of what makes life well worth living.

Byron from Don Juan

Sometimes you need to be lighter. Sometimes getting a bit off your head is what’s needed – whether it’s alcohol or music that gets you there, the important thing is to adjust your heaviosity and regain perspective.

1 Ulysses 2 The Great Gatsby 3 Tom Jones 4 Our Mutual Friend 5 The Sun Also Rises 6 the corrections 7 unconditional surrender 8 the 39 steps 9 a month in the country 10 the riddle of the sands 11 emma 12 catcher in the rye 13 lord of the flies 14 black box 15 the quiet american 16 kalooki nights 17 of mice and men 18 on the road 19 brave new world 20 cloud atlas

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

It wasn’t by Kurt Vonnegut, Baz Luhrmann or Eleanor Roosevelt. It was written by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune for a newspaper column in 1997.

Many of us are in our heads way too much of the time. It’s good to balance that with being in touch with our bodies too. And our hearts.

There is something to be said for learning at a tender age to take nothing for granted, to hug often, and to state my love without hesitation.

To take nothing for granted count your blessings each and every day – a good way is to write down two things you are grateful for first thing every morning.

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

Simply existing or spending time just trying to extend your life is not truly living. We’ve only got around 4,000 weeks of time to spend on earth. It’s Friday again and that’s another week gone (albeit a fantastic one).

The quote is used in ‘No Time to Die’ (2021), one of the best (and most romantic) Bond films. M uses it to mark the reported death of Bond with his secret service team.

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

The same is true of film. “Show, don’t tell” may be a bit of a cliché, but it’s a good one. As an audio-visual medium film needs at least as much visual as aural – pictures need to bear their fair share of the story load.

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”

As a believer in “Don’t get it right, get it written” the 1st draft is always expected to be considerably refined. But it’s better to be working from a filled sheet than a blank one and to have momentum.

Picture 7 of 8 of a story that happened this morning about an unexpected encounter with a travelling monk and its impact on the author/photographer (another Adam).

My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.

As well as doing nothing, being in silence can be a great joy.

Silence is a rhythm too.

The Slits, In the beginning there was rhythm (1981)