“Do you want to talk about it or be distracted from it” is honestly the best thing you can say to me when I say im sad/in pain etc.
this is really good advice to say to anyone who is upset
Alsooo may I add: “do you want advice or do you just want to vent?” Is also good to add because often unsoliticited advice can further hurt someone who really just wanted a listening ear.
A list of Elkins that works for museum visits as well as life in general and that I want to embrace more faithfully in my daily encounters:
1. Go to museums alone. Seeing takes concentration and calm.
2. Don’t try to see everything. Pick a few rooms and choose one painting.
3. Minimize distractions. Pick an uncrowded room and work in good light.
4. Take your time. Sit, relax, get up, come back, expect that it may take a long time for a painting to speak to you.
5. Pay full attention. Give the work what Fried called, ‘absorption.’
6. Do your own thinking. Read, study, but when it comes to looking, just look and make up your own mind.
7. Be on the lookout for people who are really looking, not simply
browsing and checking labels. Observe them without disturbing them. If
you can talk to them without disturbing them, do so.
8. Be faithful. Return to paintings you’ve spent time with.
— James Elkins, Pictures and Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried in Front of Paintings.
me: im gonna go to bed early and get a good nights sleep
netflix: here’s a bunch of 45 minute documentaries on the wildlife inhabiting coastal islands
me: hhhdbhnnnnnnnnnnddndkkj coconut crab
