This is the Eureka Project by James Mitchell, a sporadic look at unnameable things from James Mitchell, writer and advertiser.
One Saturday morning, my brother and I were watching TV when Mum came downstairs and said, “Boys, I’ve met a man.” Jack was nine at the time, but at seventeen, I considered myself Mum’s agent, and as agent, I thoroughly approved, and said so. And Mum might have considered me her agent too, because she next had to check we were happy with the details.
“He’s a man on the internet.”
Memory is a story. And either you let that story be written for you, or you try to take part in its creation.
Memory is a gallery of overlapping canvases. Events are raw material; the paints and clay, the bright glitter and dark charcoal of life. Sometimes, we don't notice them until we've left the studio.
As a new decade of new experiences rolls in, my wish for you is that you notice just how much you have to work with, every day. Remember to remember, as a good friend likes to say.
Sometimes, when we are very lucky, something happens that's big enough to make us think, "ah, yes. I'll remember this." About sixteen years ago, just such a thing happened to my family and left a memory the size of an island. I've wandered it these sixteen years, trying to find the safe spots, the fruit, the vantage point from which it all makes sense. And it's looked a little different every time.
So I finally drew the map to this island-gallery-story. And it's going to be published, a month from now, in Better Than IRL: an anthology of true stories about how the internet has helped people find each other, and find themselves. I've been reading the final proof this morning, including reading other people's essays which I was definitely not meant to do. And the book is a wonderful, heart-expanding piece of mutual empathy. Its window for print preorders (there's a kindle version too) is closing, and I implore you to check it out.
I hope you're having a peaceful start to the year, and that wherever you are, some colours have begun to show.
❧ James