Living Well Is the Best Revenge

 

This weekend, a ‘Bank Holiday’ weekend in the UK, we decided to pop into Oxfam Books for a mooch and I stumbled upon a book which this Blog post is dedicated to. “Living well is the best revenge” is the memoirs of Gerald and Sara Murphy, champions of the ‘Lost generation’ writers.

Upon a recommendation we recently saw Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight in Paris’ and it ignited a forgotten teenage interest in: Hemmingway, Stein and the Fitzgeralds’ crowd. The book title was a beacon in a collection of ‘arghhhh’ moments this month.

The advent of social networking sites has wormed its time-sapping way into my mind. I like to catch-up with friends/colleagues’ news but I often find that the time I’d like to be dedicating to creative pursuits is marred by update reading. This fascination with other people’s lives often leaves me feeling, ‘Blimey, they’re achieving so much, travelling to so many places, experiencing a life that I’m not conscious of.’ This acknowledgement is sometimes shocking because it makes me question my own life in comparison.

The ‘Art man’ and I live a good life, a quiet but good life. We enjoy theatre trips, eating out in exquisite restaurants, reading, talking, creating, seeing good friends sporadically and we’re both very close to our families. In a time when we’re trying to streamline/minimalise our creative endeavours, our social/familial life is there already.

So perhaps the Murphy’s title is fitting and something we’ll endeavour to continue to do in the face of such ambitious activity online…..