#038 ✰ The curious stick
#2 Makhila
Hello, you!
Hope you’re well. Recovery mode is on over here, thanks for the friendly notes☺️
Every week, I am paying a small tribute to an existing object that I live with by writing down its story. Here’s my why:
a break from always wanting what you don’t have
a reminder of meaningful memories
comforting me in my own sense of aesthetics and future decision-making
So here comes number two! 🥁… the makhila. Wait, what?
The makhila Anciart Bergara
This curious stick is called a makhila. The traditional walking stick from the Basque Country, south west of France, used to be both a walking companion and... a freaking weapon. Nowadays it is mainly used as a decorative piece of art, although well, it could probably help you get rid of annoying asses better than any pepper spray (with a bit of training, right).
My friend Liza is the 7th generation of makhila makers, and the only family in the Basque country that does it the traditional way, i.e 100% made locally from tree scarification to silver engraving and leather braiding. The waiting list is about eighteen months, so stand in line!
The first makhila I met was at my grand-parents’. It was hanging around with the umbrellas down the stairs. Who could tell that some two generations later, I would sit next to that girl-with-the-strong-accent in the big amphitheater of our business school. And bound forever.
So the day Kev and I got married, surrounded by the people we love most on Earth, we had the beautiful surprise to receive from the very hands of the craft-woman herself (and her partner, ha!), a signed makhila, with the saying "Bidea Ibiliz Egiten Da Mathilde Eta Kevin", Mathilde and Kevin make the path by walking. I will never forget the emotion of this moment.
My grand-father had a makhila. Jean Paul II had one. General de Gaulle. Ronald Reagan. Emmanuel Macron. Charlie Chaplin. Now me and Kev. Bright future ahead.
About Objet.
Objet is a mobile app that helps you build your collection of possessions, so that you can train the skill of knowing what you want and need.
Objet is also a community of people who want to be at peace with what they have.
And in case you missed our come back, here’s a snapshot of the past months:
Cool reads.
🎥 Why Envy Leads To Misery (9 min) What is worth wanting? Desire is mimetic. “Man is the creature that doesn’t know what to desire” said philosopher Rene Girard. Funny anecdote about Lamborghini & Ferrari you might not know about 😎🏎
📰 The Gospel Of Consumption, beautiful piece, snapshot here.
"Citizenship requires a commitment of time and attention, a commitment people cannot make if they are lost to themselves in an ever-accelerating cycle of work and consumption.We can break that cycle by turning off our machines when they have created enough of what we need. Doing so will give us an opportunity to re-create the kind of healthy communities that were beginning to emerge with Kellogg’s six-hour day, communities in which human welfare is the overriding concern rather than subservience to machines and those who own them. We can create a society where people have time to play together as well as work together, time to act politically in their common interests, and time even to argue over what those common interests might be. That fertile mix of human relationships is necessary for healthy human societies, which in turn are necessary for sustaining a healthy planet."
Til next week,
Mathilde