The Flâneur's Turtle

By Tricia Lunt, English Faculty

Recently, a new “100 Days” project emerged; this one labeled The Great Discontent and a product of an inquiry begun by artist Ella Luna. A few of my friends joined the plan to make something for 100 days in a row and post the results to a selected social media platform. Always eager to be more creative in my daily life, I elected to begin a “100 Days” project, too.

The “100 Days” project runs from Monday, April 6 through Tuesday, July 14, 2015. Beginning a project on April 6th seemed particularly fascinating, as it was the day after Easter, the traditional conclusion of Lent. No matter what our beliefs (or lack thereof), human beings crave ritual.

Many of my artistic friends selected drawing for 100 days, but I turn to words when inclined to create. Words are my touchstone. When sad, or lonely, or confused, or feeling powerless, I read and write. While casting about, trying to imagine what I’d like to work on for 100 days, I considered a variety of writerly exercises, including 100 days of metaphors, but that plan transformed.

Ultimately, I decided to curate a collection of good advice; thus, my project is on Instagram with the label #100DaysofGoodAdvice.

My selection of “Good Advice” highlights two fundamental questions: what does advice entail, and how and when might it be considered good?

Defining words requires traversing a complex landscape of meaning while maintaining a keen awareness of implication. Advice suggests a useful approach to life. In order for it to be good, it must be purposeful. All advice remains dependent on situational factors, an eloquent answer may be wrong as often as it is right. At this point I am reminded of Heraclitus’ proclamation, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” Despite these challenges of connotation and relevance, after a full fifteen days, I’m thrilled with the results.

I have to make the conscious effort to find and select a new piece of good advice each day, attempting, when I can, to connect the events of my day with some larger perception, as when I spent a weekend visiting a longtime friend, and I was reminded of the eminently useful bit of wisdom I learned in a song from Girl Scouts, “make new friends, but keep the old (one is silver and the other gold).”

Collecting good advice also requires acknowledging the meaningful encounter, as when I happened upon this empowering idea outside a health club on North Avenue. Honestly, I can’t imagine a better way to perceive my work out routine.

Another wonderful thing about the words and phrases embodying good advice is that the thoughts contained are largely positive, hopeful, which may simply be a reflection of my optimistic sensibility. Knowing that is good, too.

Awareness and intention are essential, and responding to the call to be inspired may be the best any of us can do to remain vibrantly alive.