Purposive Drift

Hmm, a colleague (who didn't much like me and I think meant it as a criticism) used to say that dropped in a desert, the first thing I'd do is bump into two people I know, and the second, set up a business selling sand-sculptures. Now you have put a name to it - bricoleur. Is it a good thing or a bad thing to be? Bit of both I suppose.

And yes, I do think life is meaningful - and good. On the whole.

You make me feel I ought to actually read Levi-Strauss. SO dreadful to admit I've only read about him.

Oh - and a question, though I'm not sure you'll answer it. So what opportunities/materials do you find at hand in North London? Serious question, not a joking one.

So good to hear from you Karen.

I don't think I've read Levi-Strauss either, but I can remember getting very excited about the idea of bricolage and wrote quite a chunk about it in "Understanding Hypermedia. Where I originally got it from escapes me now.

As to what is at hand in North London - well my previous post "Taking my own advice" skirts around that one, because essentially it is about reconfiguring the elements of my life.

I'm amused in a way to realise that we use:
1. Prague - art and architecture
2. Magic Prague - reputation, history
and, er,
3. cats (well, we seem to have our lives taken over by them here)

as the basis of most of our work. So put in the perspective that you give, it's been very much about picking up what is around us.

Seems to have worked okay too. Though you make me wonder what on earth I would now be doing if I had moved to Hong Kong or somewhere.

We met two very interesting women here a few months back. Both subscribe to the idea that you need first to find your PLACE then all else follows. Maybe, not sure it would apply for everyone, but it did work for me.

Sorry about the vagueness of that comment - it's been over 30C here for a week now - even up to 38C. Hard to stay focused.

ps - do you use Technorati.com? Very practical for getting the blog around and about.

I don't think your previous comment was vague at all. I think I would agree with your friends that finding your 'place' is very important. I might even argue that the "drift' in purposive drift is about allowing yourself the freedom of movement to find a "place" and the purposive bit is about being able to recognise it when you've got there. There is also a follow up to that which is that the right place at one point in you life might not be the right one at another. And yet another one that places can change and make it necessary to move on.