Submitted by Rebecca Kowalski on the 2015 winter session program in London sponsored by the Department of Music…
We ventured down to Camden today to check out the shops. We weren’t very enthused initially by the shoe and t-shirt stores – things you could easily get in New York on Canal Street. We were getting a little disappointed until we found a little food market, very similar to Reading Terminal Markets in Philly, but more authentic. Sampling the different cuisines was fun, and we moved onto a small shopping market with all kinds of shops. Most of them were pretty normal, but still exciting: tapestries, teas, clothes. One store caught our eye though, “Blaze On”. What’s this?
We went in and discovered this little gem of a store. Strung across the ceiling of this shop, which was smaller than our dorm rooms at school, were light strands of all different types: flowers, fairies, animals, shapes, lanterns. I was in awe. The man who owned the store came over and started telling us about the products. The lights shaped like dancers were made out of recycled women’s stockings. These shapes were made out of a recycled rain jacket. Those flower lights are real and preserved. They were marvelous! He loved telling us about them. He said he used to be a carpenter, working with his father. A few years back, he said he started experimenting with softer materials — they are more forgiving than wood. “I make a lot of mistakes,” he said, happy that he had found this medium to work in and recognizing that mistakes are just fine.
I think in America, we put a large emphasis of the importance of going into a field that has a big impact. We all want to change the world. We all want to have impressive titles. Make good money. None of these things aren’t wrong, just different. Well, this man wasn’t going to change the world by making strands of lights out of recycled materials, but it’s a living, and he was very content, it seemed to us. Happy, even. And very proud of his work. He plays his part rather than trying to be the best, or striving for perfection. He even accepts mistakes as part of his work! Like his beautiful products, he is a single light. He doesn’t need to be the sun.
