The Giocondo Christmas Letter
Fra Giovanni Giocondo, a Franciscan friar, scholar, and architect of the Italian Renaissance, wrote a letter to his pal the Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on Christmas Eve, 1513.
I first came across this passage from the letter during a moment in my life, many years ago, when things felt generally shitty but I was bit by bit groping my way out of the dark by slowly teaching myself to see the wonder in the ordinary world around me.
At the time, these words shot through me like a galvanizing force. Nearly two decades later, this remains one of the most beautiful, comforting, and profoundly true things it has ever been my pleasure to read:
“I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you do not already have. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!”
I suppose the original meaning had something to do with Christianity, but like any great text it can be read any number of different ways, and I choose to read it not that way.
Rather, I view it with the spirit of contemporary genius writer Jia Tolentino: “The fact that everything feels like God to me ensured that I would not remain a Christian.”
Take Sixteenth Century Giocondo with a dash of Twenty-First Century Tolentino and you have, essentially, the thesis of my own personal world-view and spirituality: I am your friend, beseeching you to look, because everything feels like god to me.
Hidden in every instant, just behind the darkness, but well within our reach, is radiance, glory, and joy. I can’t give this to you, but you can take it for yourself.
Holy shit, man. It’s just so good.
Friends!
Though normally these mid-month missives contain just the art-plus-writing combo above, this month I had to sneak in a little holiday prezzie for you.
It's the Watson Payne Family Xmas Playlist!
One thing to note: whereas usually my mixtapes are carefully curated with an optimal song order in mind, this one is a grab-bag of treats that were added as they occurred to us, so very much intended to be played on shuffle. Enjoy!
Light the Lamp, Not the Rat (xmas 2023)
Happy Holidays!
xo
Bridget