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Werner May - Fourth Project
For more than 20 years I have been developing a Christian psychology in theory and practice. I have done this as a staff member of the IGNIS-Institute for Christian Psychology in Germany and on the boards of some institutions in other countries. I have to teach, to prepare new topics and to initiate new projects.
In 2001 I entered the area of art in writing poems. I like to form creative teams with other creative persons.For more information see the websites (in German) on the right hand side panel:
Born in 1949 and married with Agnes for more than 35 years, I enjoy meeting my six children and their families. My six daughters live in different cities, two of them in Utrecht / Netherlands, one in Hamburg, one in Berlin, one in Cologne, one in Stuttgart.
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| Making a cardigan beautiful |
Project 04 |
| Background |
| I love wearing cardigans. There is only one problem: there are not many to choose from, and, amongst these, not many I like and which also suit me. For Christmas 2007, a new cardigan was on the wish list I gave the family. And, lo and behold, from a gift under the Christmas tree, I pulled out a new cardigan. In our family, there is normally a strong and also very vociferous sharing in the excitement of unpacking presents. It was only afterwards that it struck me that this time the whole thing was very quiet. I thanked my daughters, who had all contributed to buying this jacket. At first glance, I didn’t exactly burst into enthusiasm either. One of my daughters had bought it in the Netherlands.
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The next day, I put the jacket on as is expected, noted that no-one made remarks of any kind concerning the jacket, and had to admit to myself that it did not look very attractive. To be quite honest, it did not appeal to me. I was apparently not the only one of this opinion in the family. And this was probably the reason for the silence: It was olive coloured and somehow made a very conservative impression. To my dismay, I also discovered that that it had two straps sewn onto the shoulders, so that it also took on a slightly military air. These straps were probably not very easy to remove, as I soon found out.After Christmas, the jacket disappeared into the clothes cupboard. I may have tried it again once or twice in the next months, until it was finally cleared away for good. Now, late in Autumn, it came across it again. Then I had the idea of including it as an object in a Living Life as Art project: how can it become more beautiful in my heart (and eyes) and also physically? I wanted to put some time into this question in the coming months. |
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Description of the process |
| I had some spontaneous ideas: to have it dyed, to sew something fashionable or interesting onto it, stick a rose in it … In any case, I initially adopted the resolution to wear this jacket often, not only at home but also in the office, and to be open for any creative ideas that might occur to me or for any surprising experiences with the jacket. |
| First Results |
I was able to make three observations -
- A wide variety of shirts went well with it, particularly striking ones
- The jacket was very pleasant to wear. I felt really comfortable wearing it. It had certainly not been cheap. “Pure wool” was visible on a label.
- The knitted jacket acquired its own story in my mind: how it was given to me by my children, how they gave their time to choose it; many people in this world would be pleased to have a jacket like this; modesty and independence from visible status symbols are something valuable, etc.
The more this story developed, the more the knitted jacket pleased me. |
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At that point I remembered that aestheticians distinguish four categories of how we experience beauty, of what invokes beauty within us:
- Patterns, forms and order which are harmonious: a tidy room, a burial can be described as beautiful, despite the sadness of the occasion, if everything fits together well, the programme, the speeches, the behaviour of the mourners, the weather.
- Things and events to which a quite personal relationship exists: the torn doll from childhood days, a familiar walk, …, all of which are familiar, linked to pleasant memories.
- Actions which we do while engaged with this object: it is nice to sun oneself while sitting in a deck-chair, but the same is true of sharing the preparations for a special celebratory meal, or also of a car journey, ...
- Elementary stimuli, which everyone finds beautiful, such as a landscape with a river, a beautiful face, ... explanations for the latter are offered on the basis of the theory of evolution. One trusts the beautiful more readily, it is successful, it is preferred and therefore it exists.
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Yes, this jacket became more beautiful, because – if I go through the four categories:
- At least it does not have a horrible pattern
- For me an increasingly personal relationship with it had developed
- It was pleasant to wear and seemed to be durable, although it attracted no attention to me, let alone compliments
- From this fourth point of view, it was again not possible to find anything beautiful about it.
To me it seemed clear that this cardigan could at best become beautiful for me, but hardly for others. But even this was an advance. |
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| The next steps |
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24th November 08 - Removing the epaulettes!
The jacket would certainly benefit from that. That was also how my wife Agnes saw it. It was no easy sewing job, as the straps were connected with other seams.Should I ask Agnes to do this? She would certainly do it. But it would cost her a lot of time, which I didn’t want to take from her. But couldn’t I give it to someone else who would enjoy doing it and with whom I could thus establish a relationship? This double advantage became a prospect: a better-looking jacket and getting to know someone better.
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But then something occurred to me: in our town there is a gentleman’s outfitter, the owner of which is vaguely known to me and, as I had read only yesterday, wanted to give the shop up soon because of his age. All articles cost only 50% of the usual retail price. I will go there, tell the owner about my problem, and buy a fantastic shirt from him with a matching tie. I would then wear all of this, including the knitted jacket, as my appropriate clothing to celebrate Christmas Eve and wait expectantly for reactions from my guests, including my daughters, or whether they would actually notice at all that the jacket was from last Christmas.
That same afternoon I drove into the city. The owner recognised me at once and sold me, after looking at a number of possible choices, a shirt with red stripes and a dark blue tie. He also thought that it would be risky to remove the epaulettes, and advised me simply to leave them. This was something typical of these dark khaki jackets. Then we got into a lengthy conversation about his imminent retirement and subsequent plans. We also spoke about the current state of the economy, and he explained to me why it is almost impossible today to find a successor for a shop like this, which he had been running for 30 years.
The 20th December 2008 would be his last day. I made a resolution to give him a small farewell present before this date (which I later did). Once back home, it was entertaining to see some of the information on the colour khaki available on the internet.
Wikepedia writes: “Khaki (Hindi-Engl. from Persian khaki = dust coloured) is an earth-colour as well as a dust- or earth-coloured material of linen or cotton. It was used for the first time in 1848 for uniforms of the British regiment under Sir Harry Burnett Lumsden in India. The colour was later the official colour for British army uniforms. It became popular not only for hunting and in clothes for outside work, but also in organisations like the Scouts, whose uniforms are made from khaki.” Further on, I found an article on “cotton”: “Compared with artificial fabrics, cotton is very absorbent and can take on up to 80% of its own weight of water. Cotton material is considered very gentle on the skin (does not “scratch”) and has a very low allergenic potential. These characteristics make it valuable in the textiles industry. Once wet, however, cotton materials dry only slowly.”
I put off removing the epaulettes for the time being, resolved to continue wearing the jacket frequently and, above all, to wait to see what happened at Christmas, four weeks away.
25th November 2008
It’s getting cold outside. While dressing warmly, it strikes me that my scarf goes well with the jacket. It consequently occurs to me to leave the scarf draped over the jacket during the day in the Academy. And what happened then? One of my female colleagues, who attaches a lot of importance to dress, spoke to me and admired my scarf. Then she remarked that the jacket was new as well. Another female colleague spontaneously voiced the opinion that it looked good, the jacket with the scarf. That was unexpected. The jacket has become attractive to others!!!!!!!!! – even if with the help of the scarf.
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3rd December 2008
The epaulettes
I look for information of the history of epaulettes. Perhaps they will become more acceptable as a result.“An epaulette … is a fabric strap on the shoulder of uniforms, generally sewed into the seam of the arm, and fixed with a button at the neck end. Epaulettes serve(d) to secure the rifle shoulder strap and for fixing signs of rank and such like … Once typical of military and police uniforms, epaulettes are today widespread in civilian fashion as non-functional accessories.Epaulettes are also worn on other uniforms, e.g. in Red Cross units and the Fire Brigade.” “Accessory” is exactly how they appear to me, “paraphernalia, attachment”.“Red Cross and the Fire Brigade”: at least I was involved with both decades ago, if only briefly. But, if the epaulettes are non-functional, I will continue to see them as such in the future, not as signs of rank and identification.It occurred to me to ask, if they were not there, whether it would really look better? My answer, which I then stuck to, was “No”.With that, the story of the epaulettes was concluded!
10th and 11th December 2008
Counter-demonstration:
I confess, in the meantime I had bought a cardigan of the kind that pleased me, exactly according to my wishes. I found it looked very good.Now I decided to wear it in the office for two days and to wait for comments from my colleagues, or at least to see if anyone noticed it at all. Nobody said anything about it at all; indeed, it even seemed as if everyone was oblivious to it. Not that it is important to me to be noticed or be praised for my clothing, but its being ignored did surprise me. The khaki jacket had at least been commended once, even if only thanks to the combined effect with the scarf. To make a special point of wearing the new jacket with the scarf did then seem to be taking things too far. It became clear once again how subjective our aesthetic feeling is.Conclusion: my khaki jacket is probably every bit as attractive as the jacket that I find attractive!Now I will wait only for the experiment on Christmas Eve before concluding a peace-treaty with my beautiful khaki jacket.
Special idea
Then it suddenly occurred to me to see how the jacket looked on other men.I asked four of my colleagues to put it on and let themselves be photographed in it; after some explanations on my part, they agreed.And the jacket suited them all! Not sensationally well, more inconspicuously, but it fitted in!Perhaps the beauty of the cardigan comes out when it is used, i.e. when it is worn? A question of who wears it and how? Dignified, self-assured, withdrawn into oneself, uncouth,…?Or else the jacket really does suit everyone. That it did not please me at first sight was perhaps more my rejection of myself than anything to do with the jacket? |
Christmas Eve 2008
The Christmas tree was decorated, the presents were under it, so I could get myself dressed up now, the special shirt, the special tie for the khaki-coloured jacket. The first two of my daughters to have the opportunity of seeing me like this couldn’t resist remarking that something was wrong with my outfit. Shirt, tie and jacket, in their opinion, did not match. They sent me away to change, to which I immediately agreed, because I didn’t like it either. As the jacket was to be retained, I hurriedly put on simply a white shirt with a red tie. My two critics found this was certainly an improvement, but the jacket, they thought, left me under-dressed. I didn’t let this put me out of my stride and launched into the family Christmas celebration. In the course of the whole evening, there were no further remarks, not even from the other daughters, and no-one seemed to recognise the jacket from last Christmas. I noted that the white shirt went very well with it. For me, the jacket had never looked better! During the meal late that evening, I asked them to say why they thought I was wearing the jacket. Two thought it was because it was from last Christmas. The two who had bought it then added that I had asked for a cardigan to wear around the house, not for the office, for going out or for celebrations. |
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Results of the “Christmas Experiment” and all attempts to improve the appearance of the cardigan: |
- My jacket was intended for wear around the house. The priority was therefore comfort rather than looks.
- With a white shirt it really looks good! It gives me a “spontaneous” personal reaction of pleasure!
- It goes with almost everything, regardless of what shirt one wears. Of how many jackets can that be said?
- It lacks elegance, which can be made up for at best by an elegant scarf, but as a jacket to wear at home, after work, with a white shirt, it is absolutely perfect! It gives comfortable warmth with the scent of an open fire!
The Art of Life brings beauty into this world – creates it or recognises it – and honours it. The idea of improving the looks of my jacket served as an example to me for other improvement schemes. What general conclusions are possible? Leave yourself time to form a judgement, gather experiences with the person / the object / the event, change the perspective and the context, acquaint yourself with the origins, go through the four categories of beauty, compose some thoughts about interventions and additions for improving the appearance, come up with some special ideas; all of this creates, combined with the 12 keys to the Art of Life, a gain in beauty. |
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