Ya, ya, ya, old news. I know ladies. I am sooo late to the party. It’s a common theme with me; generally several spins behind the trend. Whatever. Sometimes I just really need to see how it all plays out before I hop on the bandwagon (inserts shoulder shrug emoticon). I do apologize for taking so long and bow to ask forgiveness.
Anyway, currently obsessed and I want you to understand why.
Truth be told I’m very easily obsessed but I’ve been musing about what it is about Outlander? Ya, ya, ya Jamie is hot and they have sex. Yes, this is true, but ladies, this is not a unique formula. I’m watching the TV series. From the start all my senses were in rapture; the scenery, the music, the costumes, and of course the characters, all of them. Again, though, not unique. Why then is the draw so strong? You’ve been sharing sideways smirks about it for years, I was laughing about it at 4am at work overnight, it captures across generations. There’s many a spot to find a chiseled jaw and broad chest. Don’t sell yourselves short ladies, there is more to it and you than that. Could it be that other needs are being met? Of course I think so. Like whiskey down the throat, I think it is burning our insides with its romance, drudgery, and utter reverence.
Obviously the romance of it all is positively divine. I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to walk around in a sheer white gown that hangs just so over your breasts while the cold, damp stone room is heated and also lit by the perfect fire and your bed, plump with heavy linen, awaits you surrounded by candles? And those dresses. Jesus. Why don’t we still do that? The layers, the fabric, the curved silhouette, the appearance of floating effortlessly through the streets, or woods. (Not to mention that one can’t help but notice that apparently no one wears underwear. Good grief, can I get an amen for how annoying underwear is?!) Every moment is dripping with ceremony and ritual. What is getting dressed or undressed like for you? What is the lighting like? Are you rushed? Do you take your time? What do your clothes feel like against your body? What is your bedroom like? What do you do right before you go to sleep and when you first awake in the morning? If you have a partner, do you look at them, touch them, kiss them? If it is just you, are your senses pleased before your drift off? What is the first thing you look at in the morning? Of course it is easy to curate romance on screen, but don’t kid yourself that it is out of reach here too.
You know what else is divine? The dirt. Good god, the dirt. Hair rarely washed, face always smudged with a layer earth and sweat. You can almost touch the feel of that skin; just recently sated from exertion, dried from perspiration, at once clammy and warm and full of scent. The drudgery of it all makes me yearn. (Yes, that is such a privileged response, I know, see previous post regarding that anguish.) The lack of true danger and worry in modern life and the ease at which seeming needs can be met erases all hope of carnality. What would it be like to just have your day satisfy your physicality? To have tasks take more effort and time then a button pushed? Why do we resist preparation and strain so? Somehow I can’t help but wonder if anxiety is rising because we all know that the pendulum might not even be at mid swing? Our race for ease and growth and modernity will ultimately be our demise and at its peak rightward swing the pendulum will fall back, and down, and left. Will that bring relief to some? Are souls aching for a little dirt and toil right now? Or is the imbalance that we feel, more likely that, for earth’s majority the drudgery is crushing but invisible to the rest; the rest who are both simultaneously lost from it and able to lift it.
Romance, toil, texture, dirt, candlelight, sweat; those are key, yes, but what really gets me? It is the utter surrender to reverence. Reverence: profound adoring awed respect. Is this not what we all seek? Even more, when we receive it, do we notice? Are you truly alive if you don’t revere another? Oh yes, I love watching this spill all over the screen, episode after episode, look after look. When you are twenty years older, having now borne children, and stand naked and you truly are the most beautiful woman in the world. When you quietly speak your profession and the one you revere doesn’t hesitate a second before confirming that he, of course, knew you were always that. Oh yes, how wonderful it is to let it wash over. And oh how much do we need to forage for this here and now. Not just to and from the ones we lie beside but when we touch the earth, take a deep breath, glance sideways at a butterfly, we must notice that this too all deserves our most gracious reverence.
So off you go, read the words again, watch the scenes again, please. This time though, pay a little more attention. Find what it is that draws you in. Whatever it may be for you, this Sassenach hopes you don’t think it entirely outlandish to go seek some of it for yourself. Find your ritual and romance, slow down and toil a little, and by all means, drop your clothes and be revered.