On yet another Sunday, I am looking back at a week that was far busier and more stressful than I expected. On yet another Sunday, I am disappointed that I didn’t have the time I wanted to devote to today’s newsletter.
Earlier this year I read The Someday Garden, another great magical realism novel by Ashley Poston. Each chapter is titled with a non-English term that lacks a direct translation to English. Some chapters directly translated the words as part of the narrative; for others, it was more like a subtle theme. So I started looking up each one and jotting down the definition as I read. I should say a definition, as many of the words have multiple meanings or at least connotations.
About two-thirds of the way through the book, I came to a chapter titled “mono no aware,” a Japanese term. The definition I chose to write down was “a sensitivity toward ephemera.” I have a well-known love for ephemera — defined by the dictionary as “items (such as posters, broadsides, and tickets) originally meant to be discarded after use but that later become collectibles.” So I added “sensitivity to ephemera” to my list of future newsletter ideas.
Tonight, writing my newsletter is one of many items on my to-do list. I also needed (or, at the time of this writing, still need) to unpack from our trip to Bowling Green, put my journals back on their shelves after removing them for an exciting project, eat some dinner, sort the books that currently cover my coffee table, organize about three weeks’ worth of saved items for my journal, and try to give some attention to my needy cats. When I saw “sensitivity to ephemera” on my ideas list, I realized I could combine two of those to-do list items.
So, in appreciation of and sensitivity toward ephemera, here is a non-exhaustive list of the paper goods I saved and sorted and will eventually preserve in my journal:
Backdrop card of an Ale-8 bottle pin, featuring Sue the Squirrel
Torn pieces of streamers: blue, pink, green
Old Navy promotion mailer
Found in the pocket of a Carhartt vest a few days ago: sticker from our 2023 trip to Red River Gorge
Schedule from the first day of Picture Kentucky
Sticker I bought at Witches Night Out in Frankfort that shows witches having a “spa day” in a bubbling cauldron
Smiley face stickers that a friend with the last name Smiley uses to label his belongings
Vet bill
Printed 4x6 photo of me, Loui, Leo and George on the day Loui and I got married
Tea bag that my mother-in-law used at breakfast the other day
Printed and signed photo of a Samurai taken by one of my participants at Mountain Workshop
Sticky note stamped with my friend’s logo in various levels of inky and faded, so that the stamp wouldn’t stain anything when I returned it to its place
Petals from a flower Loui picked up from the ground and handed to me
When I got to the end of The Someday Garden, I found a thorough glossary defining each term. I had to laugh at myself, since I had been meticulously researching each one online. Tonight I checked the glossary for how it defined “mono no aware”: “the profound and bittersweet awareness of the fleeting nature of life.” That, too, feels fitting for these busy days.