news from nowhere

notes on a friendship

“It took me years to understand that words are often as important as experience, because words make experience last.” William Morris

When we held the Unpsychology event in Edinburgh at the end of September, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the magazine and the launch of the Edges issue, I stumbled across a new friend and a kindred spirit. I recognised Imma from the online creative workshop that had taken place months earlier, and from which had emerged a theme of ‘collaboration’. Zoom however had done nothing to prepare me for the tangible wave of personal warmth which Imma brought into the room. We'd never met, but we greeted one another with a hug; it seemed inevitable.

Imma lives in Aberdeen, and I'm in Edinburgh, so following this initial connection we decided that we must meet up and spend some time together. Hence we hatched a plan to meet midway in the fine city of Dundee. This we finally did just a few weeks ago.

On a bitterly chilly morning of November, one which threatened the trains with a first season's snowfall, we made our ways north and south to land up together in Dundee. First we found a cafe in which to warm up and to spend time just talking, and talking... sharing, and sharing: this is me, who are you? And then we got up and went for a walk.

Imma has sent me a poem, her reflections on this time we spent together:

William Morris was right.
What was he right about?
I asked her…

We are roaming around
a town we don’t know really well
our steps and the bodies who go with them
meeting for the first time
on our own, without agenda
or public expectations.

Our identities
in discovery mood
our arms enlaced
in this cold, but sunny, morning.

We stopped
disentangling our arms with reluctance
She took a picture of me
in front of a panel
were those words were written:

William Morris was right.

I didn’t ask her about what again

She told me his story, a bite here
a bite there, not linear but meshy
it seems this we have in common
our meshness.

He was a well-known designer
in 19th century
a key member of the Arts & Crafts
Movement. ‘And much more’
She said

Wallpapers carpets textiles,
embroideries tapestries tiles
even book and furniture designs
less known… subversive poetry
political essays.

His famous quote reads
Have nothing in your houses
that you do not know to be useful
or believe to be beautiful.

She noticed my curiosity
and said… I’ll send you a link
(and later on, she did)
but I was more interested
In how she introduced him to me,

and then his wife, Jane Morris
(much more beautiful)
and his daughter, who I’m intrigued
for her self-description
as feminist.

And then she said,
‘there is a book’,
is there? I asked… And she answered
‘News from Nowhere’

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Eventually we found another cafe and warmed ourselves with soup and bread. Then all too soon, it was time to depart. Back to our respective cities, back to our respective lives. Just a few hours together and yet an entire world created in that precious space.

If we're fortunate in this life, we find fellow travellers to walk alongside us for some of the way. I am so fortunate, and so grateful for this brief, beautiful interlude in a busy week, a relentless month. As the midwinter season draws down upon us, in and amongst the bustle and crush of our everyday tasks and chores, I wish for everyone in the Unpsychology community to find just such a little corner of peace and camaraderie.

“Your hearts make all plain in the best wise they would
And the world ye thought waning is glorious and good...” William Morris