i wonder if someone batting their eyelashes1 at you is actually about eye contact that’s long enough for blink, for you to notice blinking. that’s a lot of seconds, held there, in each other’s gaze. that’s regard. for christmas my sister gave me eyelashes
for my car! on saturday, the car finally dawned them. let me tell you i was just as tickled as i thought i would be. i feel like this child:
the lashes feel absolutely absurd, absolutely silly, and absolutely glamorous. imagine this car batting his eyelashes at you, dreams can come true.
i am doing the artist’s way with two pals and one of the invitations this week is “Make this phrase a mantra: Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong.” Julia Cameron adds, “We tend to think being hard on ourselves will make us strong. But it is cherishing ourselves that gives us strength.”
this invitation feels connected to the lashes on the car. something about our impulse to decorate (decor, root, to add grace), about style as a practice of dignity. something about mischief, about looking long enough to know we’re both in on it.
something about looking long enough at ourselves, at each other, blink, to remind us of how dear we are.
“…let me say / standing here in eyelashes, in / … the brittle, gnawed life we live, / i am held, and held” - I , Dionne Brand, Thirsty