Collectors’ items
Chantal is not a collector with a host of little statues. Matthew is a collector with shelves of craft beer bottles. A collection of content offers the potential of a grand library of possibility.
Enabling The How #222. Reading time: 5 minutes, 34 seconds
Anyone coming to our home would think that we have Buddhist leanings. As you enter the front door to soft Tibetan bell music, several baby buddhas arranged in a half moon on an antique Singer sewing machine table welcome you in. It could look like an altar.
A set of six chubby robed buddhas encircle a white marble laughing buddha under the TV screen. A larger buddha surrounded by flowers and crystals grins contentedly as you walk down the passage from the kitchen. Outside three more hunker down in the flower bed, hands over eyes, mouth and ears. No evil here.
We do not have Buddhist leanings but Chantal has a leaning towards laughing buddhas. She got her first laughing buddha while she was at university when she accompanied a friend who wanted to get her nose pierced to the Oriental Plaza in Fordsburg.
While waiting, Chantal browsed the trestle tables set up outside the piercing venue. Here she discovered the delightful statue sitting joyful surrounded by sparkling bangles and incense holders.
This white marble buddha sat crosslegged on her desk for decades. In more difficult times it was a visual reminder of a return to happiness, lightness and being grounded. When we moved to our Linden house it found a place under the TV screen where it was easy to see.
Matthew latched onto this leaning towards smiling, serene and happy statues and gifted Chantal many of the other buddhas she has. Judson followed suit with a few more. Not a collector by nature, Chantal has now accumulated a host of laughing baby, and not so baby, buddhas.
Matthew is a collector
Matthew is a collector. He began collecting as a school boy. He has started and discarded collections since then. His current collection is of craft beer bottles and tins. He has several book shelves full of different craft beers, primarily South African, with a smattering of Southern African craft breweries.
This desire to hold onto these empties has caused some consternation for Chantal who calls them “dust collectors”.
“Why do you collect these bottles?” she asked, seeking to understand.
“At first I was fascinated by the range and types of craft beer made. I loved the different tastes and wanted to know more,” answered Matthew. “Like what’s an IPA? And the difference between a pilsner and a lager.”
For someone who loves good design, the labels were an attraction. The variety of styles, colours and patterning made them artworks in their own right. It was about supporting the “little guy” (or gal), many of whom closed down over lockdown, and buying local.
“They also represent great times I have had, places I have been and connections I’ve made,” he continued, ”They hold happy memories.”
Not just about things
Collecting doesn’t just need to be about things. Over the last seven years we have designed, developed and produced a large collection of content. From the development of Shape of Emotion and SNAK as emotion regulation tools, underpinned by our twelve principles, we evolved courses, workshops, training programmes and Emotional Fitness Classes.
When something didn’t stick we pivoted and developed something else in response. We layered and added. Refined and reframed. We developed programmes for youth, caregivers and the workplace.
We have files and folders of brochures, workbooks, fliers and marketing material catalogued and kept safe in the Cloud and in storage boxes. Mostly in the Cloud.
We have audio and video content. We have online courses and a podcast, a year long stress programme and fifteen minute “cuppa soups” for anxiety. We have Thoughtscapes and mindful minutes, poetry meditations and tree reflections.
We have Seeding Circles and Ama-zing triangles. We work from the inside out with Lightr Feet and softer hearts. We teach super powers and peer support.
We have assessments and their results, reports and proposals. We have pages and pages of beautifully laid out offerings and comprehensively compiled analysis for individuals and organisations which we wonder are ever read.
Far too much
You may say we have far too much. You may say we have been unfocused and a little all over the place. We have been accused of being ahead of the curve, too abstract and basically misunderstood.
We have been told to language our work in a way that is clear and consumable. But can you consume touch points and listen to your body? Or does an empty chip packet say more about how you feel?
There certainly have been times when we have looked at this mountain of work and wondered: What are we doing? Will we ever get traction? When will this land? When will people get it?
At the beginning of this year we said, that’s it, no more. We are not developing anything new. We are going to use what we have. And what we have is huge.
We have a silo of knowledge and research. We have stores of data and wells of information. This year was about what we were going to do with it all.
A grand library
We have previously spoken about the cracking project that Matthew is working on. This project, which we came to almost by mistake, holds the possibility of being able to use everything we have ever made before. It sits on a bank of information and knowledge that we have built up, and on, each time we pivoted.
It appears that we will be able to repurpose much of what we have developed and produced in the past. It offers the opportunity to put our work together in a way that the world will finally understand.
It’s like pixels on a screen, which, when looked at up close, are simply a collection of dots. When you stand back from them, however, you suddenly see the picture.
For years, our work has lived in different storage facilities: in folders, on hard drives, in workbooks. Shelves of work spread out over space and time. Separate but connected.
This project is more than just a new shelf for our collection; it is the grand library we’ve been working towards without even knowing it. This project is the move that finally brings it all under one roof, giving every piece of our collection a direction and a doorway to the person who needs it most.
Building an ecosystem
This store of work has offered, like so many other collections, the excitement of new knowledge driven by a desire to learn. It has allowed us to appreciate the thought and creativity that went into each design and choice of colour and image.
Throughout this time we have fostered a sense of community with those who share our interests and built memories that represent a sense of continuity with our past and beyond. And there has been great pleasure and enjoyment in the process.
And, now, with the possibilities that the project provides, we have the opportunity to share everything we have got. After seven years of collecting, we are no longer just building individual tools. We are building the ecosystem that connects them all, creating a living library of resources not just for a moment in time, but for the full human journey.
Until next time.
Yours in feeling,
Matthew & Chantal