Saltburn - An Excellent Study on Revival & Reinvention
Fusing the fresh with the familiar makes quite an impact - in art & in life.
Hello my loveliest of lovelies! Wow I am pumped for 2024! I’m so excited for all that it will bring. Whether it’s what I’m planning, or the unexpected twists and turns that a year inevitably gifts you with - I’m ready for it all. (Happy dance!)
And speaking of twists and turns - can we talk about Saltburn?! (Spoiler Alert for those of you who have been living under a rock and still haven’t seen it). Wow!
Twists and turns aplenty in the season’s most visceral cinematic romp - from the plot, the character dynamics, to Barry Keoghan’s show stopping performance of penis flashing pirouettes. Loved it all.
My son came home from seeing it the cinema before Xmas and would not stop nagging me til I went to see it - just so we could talk about it! Him being the tender age of 21, it was probably the first grifter come opportunistic sociopath flick he has seen, so understandably - he was pumped for the storyline of ‘upper class privilege meets struggle street, and the worm turns’.
I couldn’t help but immediately think of Matt Damon prancing around in Black tie & Y-Fronts in The Talented Mr Ripley some 20 years ago (sorry Matt, Barry wins this competition hands down!) And for sure - there are parallels, but this newsletter isn’t a review of the film. (I have indeed done a review on the podcast - check it out here). Saltburn, with its nod to previous films of this genre, and the revival of club hit ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ reminded me of a concept that is often utilised in film, music, fashion - in fact all forms of popular culture. That is - borrowing from the past to give inspiration to the present, thereby ensuring a more vibrant future.
The Akan Tribe of Ghana have encapsulated this concept into a beautiful word, that I became interested some years ago when I was writing my book ‘The Gap Year(s)’. ‘Sankofa’ - it loosely translates to ‘go back and fetch it’. The power that can be found in retrieving elements from your past and bringing them forward to help build a stronger future.
2023 Can F**K Right off (where have we heard that before?)
All too often we want to see the arse end of a year and never revisit it. My festive season social feeds were filled with ‘kick 2023 to the curb’, ‘2023 can fuck off - a new year awaits’, and certainly, when you’ve experienced challenges, setbacks, heartache - the end of the year can be a really good time to farewell what was, acknowledge it, draw a line underneath it and march off towards a bright shiny new year shaking off the last vestiges of the past, and leaving them to create history you’d really rather forget.
If you’re reading this newsletter (firstly thank you!), but you are only too well aware of the shitstorm that 2023 was for me. My heartbreak was fucking biblical in the pain and pestilence it served up to me. When the seas parted, all I wanted to do was to lie down on the ocean floor and wait for it to swallow me up. I wailed, wallowed (wailed some more), and as the months slowly ticked by, I began to piece myself back together bit by bruised and broken bit.
You were there for all of the journey - offering kindness, compassion, love and support. So you knowthe struggle ws real. It would therefore seem reasonable that I would want to shake off 2023 like a piece of dogshit from my shoe - right? But here’s the thing: as I move towards my ‘3 x 20’ birthday (Jan 22 mark it in your calendar - cheers!), this I do acknowledge and embrace - I am a fucking rich tapestry. The woman I am walking into 2024 as, is a complex and vibrant collection of all that I have lived and experienced - the good, the bad and the ugly.
So here’s the top five learns from 2023, that I’m going to go back and fetch to take forward to my bright future:
The best gifts sometimes come wrapped in drab, brown paper.
My relationship ended over the phone in a foreign country. Worst possible scenario on the surface of things - but upon reflection it was a gift. I didn’t have to work (job-wise) through the weeks of the initial shock. I was amongst friends who could care for me (and did). I was distracted daily by being in Europe (I wasn’t trapped by surroundings that screamed of what I was losing). I started my video blog which led to this newsletter - gift!)
Leaving my job was the right decision, regardless of what happened next.
Had I known my relationship was about to end prior to resigning from my corporate job, would I have taken the risk to leave? I had it all there. Security, good money, people who love, respect and trust me, and me them. This would have undoubtedly provided me with a secure net in which to fall, and I lamented the fact for several weeks. In my darkest hours I cursed the fact that I had forgone the security of fultime employment for the abject vulnerability I found myself in, but now I know I can survive any storm - gift!
I’m finally good with trusting my gut.
I have (re)connected with my intuition and my spiritual side. I have a deep confidence in backing myself that I simply didn’t have prior to 2023. This new ‘knowing’ within me underpins how I will operate my new business - science based methodologies with integrated holistic practices - gift!
Healing doesn’t just take time - it takes work.
Investing money into my mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health and wellbeing, and then engaging in the discomfort that comes with that (and it will come) reaps the greatest rewards - gift!
Sex appeal really is an inside job.
I thought I was dead inside (and out). Invisible. Past my use by date. Once the desire (and desirability) fire goes out - you’re just kicking through ashes. Turns out this is not true - it just smoulders as embers, waiting to be relit - gift! (More on that later).
Enough about me - let’s focus on you!
Honestly, I could go on, and more will come in the coming weeks and months. But for now I want to ask you something. If 2023 has become the latest year you want to leave behind - what were its unsung gifts? How much did you grow through the adversity it served up? Who did you meet? Who did you serve and how did they benefit? How did 2023 add to your rich tapestry? And what of it will you take forward to build a better future? Have a look back - you might be surprised at what you’d like to retrieve.