Mindfulness by Carl Bessette

As luck would have it, I was in the countryside on US election day and I couldn’t have been in a better place to take my mind off things after the results.

I was able to breathe through my nose and shout a few church words into the woods, which made a few grouse – the most timid (and stupid) bird in our forests – rise up. It seems like he’s doing everything to be fooled by his predators, this walking meal.

Despite this beautiful walk, an immense fatigue fell on me at the idea of ​​the planet undergoing a season 2 of shit show Trumpian, this time boosted by Elon Musk.

Not making Trump an obsession will be difficult, we know that now. During the four years he was president, his statements and slip-ups monopolized attention constantly, transforming the news into reality television in which he was the star. It seemed like a never-ending media eclipse, throwing into the shadows all the other subjects, even the most important, even the most crucial for our future. I don’t plan on falling into that again.

We know we’re going to hear horrors and bullshit for four more years. Above all, we must not lose sight of all the seemingly small things that nevertheless give meaning to our lives.

This reflection comes to me from reading All the details by Carl Bessette during my week of vacation. I heard the writer on the show There will always be culture and I found his project fascinating. Carl Bessette, co-founder of the now defunct Éditions de l’Écrou, does not suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (called OCD), which can make life very difficult for people who suffer from it, but it can clearly be classified as the group of neurodivergents, because they have lots of obsessive inclinations.

Except that in his case, it seems almost a joy, a vibrant praise of organization, efficiency and delicacy. He systematically counts every step of the stairs, and carefully plans his movements to arrive VERY precisely on time, because according to him, punctuality is an art. “Everything is chosen. Everything is always chosen,” estimates this friendly maniac, who washes his hands six or seven times an hour, and that has nothing to do with the pandemic, since he has always done it.

For Carl Bessette, using the lawn mower is “one of the greatest pleasures there is”, spreading bread is done down to the millimeter and there are only two ways to open a bag of chips (he does not explain which).

I laughed a lot while reading this collage of obsessions that were actually perfectly harmless, while telling myself that my house where there are books jumbled together without any order would give him nightmares. Bessette draws good from her habits, and reminds us that it is possible to obtain small daily satisfactions that secretly satisfy us, as long as we pay attention to them. “Beyond the ritual of symmetry, the ritual of beauty,” he writes. And above all, the ritual. Quite simply. »

I’m allergic to esoteric stuff and junk spirituality, but it seems to me that the spirit of Carl Bessette fits perfectly with this fashionable idea of ​​”mindfulness.” In any case, it is the opposite of the “letting go” so advocated today. Every second of his life is thought out, ritualized, and even a little sacred, and a certain gratitude is sometimes exercised there. For example, when he finishes a book, he holds it to his forehead and takes deep breaths, as if to merge with its content.

“Testimony in everything to a permanent care, and we will talk,” writes Carl Bessette. Can you imagine what this would look like if we applied this to human relationships? As far as objects are concerned, I belong, I realize after reading this, to the neurotypical camp which needs a little chaos to organize itself. But All the details has the merit of bringing us back to this idea that each thing and each choice that we make, in the smallest details (none is less in Bessette), are important, basically. Even the most insignificant things have an impact on our existence. And perhaps also, according to divine mysteries, about the world.