HOW DID I GET HERE?
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To me, living and dying are inextricably interconnected. It is something that deeply resonates because when I was 10 years old I was obsessed with and terrified of dying. At this time in my life my mother, who immigrated to Canada as a boat person from Vietnam, was struggling with her own questions of mortality. She had been told by a palm reader that she would die young and her sombre musings became my anxious first ponderings about death.
I was quite worried and heart-sick until it occurred to me that if I were to die, I could ask God to send me back to Earth as a spoon! My childhood logic speculated that spoons could take a lot of wear and tear without pain and suffering. I imagined myself as a resilient, jubilant spoon in the next life, invincible against sink garburators and fated to a lifetime of useful service. This was a revelatory moment for me: I would become a spoon! This image of Joan-the-Spoon seemed to be the seed of a life long process of blooming wherein I could embrace death as a natural process of living with some ease, humor and comfort. 20 years later, it seems I have found my own unique path to be a spoon. It is amazing how modern palm reading has become so elegantly woven into my work, moving from prophetic family history to my own living breathing practice that deals with death by amplifying love of life. #themagicisreal |
