Image from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, c. 1412.
It was too hard to think about beauty this past week, too much to ask of ourselves. At this remove - though our minds are as jammed as they've ever been with spinning wheels, and despite the fact that we're still not sleeping so great - not thinking about beauty is a kind of failure we are not prepared to admit.
No matter the degree of mankind’s self-directed cruelty, no matter how ugly the world, beauty persists too. Shallow and profound, personal, cultural, physical, intellectual, whatever: back to (beautiful) work.
We won't be so strict, over the coming months, about our monthly months. We will let our internet fields grow a little wild, allow our calendar to get loose and intuitive, our constellations of themes & thoughts to wax ever more expansive and inclusive. (Strict boundaries were never really our thing anyway.) We are ready to lay low and think for a bit, but also to burst out with whatever it is we want to say.
And we hope you will come along with us, too: we will be welcoming contributions from readers and friends, so please get to thinking, and get in touch with queries and ideas: olympiamonthly@gmail.com.
With love and hope, Barbara & Lydia