E: Experimental By Nature


The Wishbone Alphabet – an experiment, of course, with attitude, life and the eponymous soup.

I use the word ‘experimental’ to embody my approach to life so far. I mean it in an avant-garde rather than scientific sense. In balance, I write a very organised shopping list based on an orderly meal plan; being experimental isn’t a licence to act continuously on impulse. Assessment and learning are part of it too. Or am I being too subjective? Maybe I am simply glamorising contrariness?


I rejected the idea of a regular Saturday job as a youngster, for I valued my time above all material things, so I sat on the beach in my second hand clothes, eating cheap sandwiches. 
I played with the idea of not going to school, not being a fan of rules, but I liked learning so I decided to amble along that path for a while. 
A weekend in Dublin, before starting my exciting degree, produced a daughter. I practised being a mother and then thought it might be a good thing to reintroduce formal education, so I earned myself a teaching degree. 
I then promptly rejected a sensible career, in the spirit of avoiding any further staff room conversations about sell by dates on yoghurt, and finding out what happens when you don’t have a life ruled by a career (turns out you don’t have much money, and can often be consumed by the need to keep a roof over your family’s head, but you can spend time on the beach/in a field, wearing second hand clothes and eating cheap sandwiches.)

It will only be a success if I lie on my deathbed (or futon, or divan, or roadside verge) and feel satisfied. Imagining life closing down, what do I think of? I try it and the preliminary results are encouraging, and rather filmic. 


Comments

PR said…
Lovely post. I love cheap sandwiches, the money can be spent on something so much more exciting! I'm loving your background, did you do that yourself? :)

Universal Gibberish
Lisa Southard said…
For a moment there Anna I thought you meant background as in personal history! Either way, yes, it's my own work :-) Thank you, and bon appetite with the sandwiches!
sc morgan said…
My father always used to say, "You only live once, and if you do it right that's all you need." I think you are on the right track. All of us, I suppose, will have some set of regrets, but at least yours won't be that you spent too much time at a dull job. Live life and free.
Lisa Southard said…
It feels like the right track! Well, it feels like my track, so I'm keen to keep following! :-)
Suze said…
Which film?
Lisa Southard said…
Black Cat White Cat - only in Technicolour. I can never have enough Technicolour.
Anonymous said…
Some things are best left unexamined, but this was better examined.
If that makes any sense. ~Mary
Lisa Southard said…
And, having examined it, I think it's quite acceptable as a life :-)

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