Candle-Maker’s Diary Week 13
Greetings from semi-quarantine, a space that is gingerly starting to shrink as we begin to crawl out of lockdown– a good time to stick one’s head out the door, emerging into the summer air to inhale the bready aroma from the Alternative Baker’s shop, feel the breeze tickle your skin, and watch the lazy river inching along between the trees, flat as a frying pan. Air conditioners buzz. A catbird sings to his kids in the catalpa tree: a feast for the senses—and free for the taking.
It seems obvious that our five senses act as portals through which the world in all its variety pours in to enrich our thoughts. Although, as we speak, the finest brains of Silicon Valley are busily inventing ways to replace direct, personal experience with the manufactured experiences of virtual reality, while publicly denying any responsibility for the outcome of such experiments. I don’t believe it is retrograde to take a dim view of this madness: if the Alternative Baker removed five vitamins from a loaf, replaced two, and called the result “augmented” would you buy it?
Similarly, if a psychiatrist offered to remove three of your five senses and engage the remaining two in a simulated world that they invented to replace your own, would you try it?
As we’ve drifted from our favorite subject—or subjects as there are five of them—we back away from the cyber world and remind ourselves, and anyone else who will read or listen, that our five senses are the attributes we are born with in order not just to navigate, but to enjoy and interact with the world around us. People–that’s us—instinctively gravitate to light, be it sun, moon, or candle. As well, we enjoy touching—things, people, animals. And, of course, we equate scents with remembered experience, pleasant or otherwise. As we’ve been in a sensual desert during lockdown, it makes sense (couldn’t help it) to treat ourselves to those sensual experiences open to us. Our store is open to browse on weekends 11:00 to 6:00, and any time you see the front lights on. We are happy to present a “touch-free” shopping experience that allows you to take home and enjoy a scented candle, incense, wax tart (see pic), or soap.
Wishing you love and light, Wilda
