We asked ourselves this question a lot as we dreamed up the idea of Boxwalla. Does Boxwalla need to exist? What do we add to the cluttered interwebs? Do we add anything? How do we add something? Why are we doing this?
Why are we doing this?
Boxwalla is an idea that spawned from several tiny ideas and thoughts we’d had over the years. It was an idea or framework, if you will, that pulled all our several tiny thoughts and ideas and tied them all up with a giant yellow ribbon. As it is often difficult for us to describe ourselves in a quick one-sentence blurb. we thought in our very first blog post, we’d untie our yellow ribbon and give you a taste of some of the tiny thoughts that became Boxwalla.
1. We love beauty in all its mutable forms. And while some forms seem harder to appreciate than others, we’ve always felt that once you live with a thing of beauty, watch it, read it, or hold it between your fingers, you begin to appreciate it and understand it. You may not always love it. But you will find something to love. and keep.
2. We love independent bookstores, used bookstores, the kind where you can chat with one of the owners about books, life and pizza while he tunes a radio to his favorite station. We love record stores where the owner who loves hip hop will show you a much loved copy of a comic book that details its history ; video stores, the kind that Quentin Tarantino used to work in (Supposedly, the whole neigbourhood got hooked on to Eric Rohmer thanks to him). We love all these and those small shops around the corner. And we were starting to get worried that they would die before us.
3. We enjoy shopping with small businesses, artisanal businesses. In whose products you can spot the skill, the thought and the thoughtfulness of its makers. Be it the way a small batch producer of jam coaxes the flavors of seasonal fruit into a jar. Or the way, a crafter of beauty products combines oils and butters and water into a lotion that melts into skin, and makes sure to add a custom fragrance because you told her you were pregnant and were avoiding phthalates. Or the way a knitter added an extra pair of gloves in your package with great gift because she thought you could do with the extra warmth while grieving for your grandfather.
4. We love slowness. Slow travel. Slow food. Slowly weaving our way through our world and learning from whoever will teach us.
Once upon a time, we were filling gas at a gas station when we heard the most wonderful jazz music coming from the cd player of the attendant there. We bought some snickers just so we could talk to him. We asked him what was playing and what he would recommend we listen to if wanted more like it . He wrote down a list of musicians on a piece of paper. And that’s how we discovered Jelly Roll Morton. And Clarence Williams.
There’s a story we are trying to tell. A story about things. Our things, your things. Things we buy and use. Things we hold and keep. Things we want. And things we love. Because we know their story.
As we gather all these thoughts and try to stuff them back into Boxwalla, we realize that eventually what we are doing is trying to seek the best – the best that our sensory, creative and intellectual world has to offer. And as we circle our thoughts and things with our giant yellow ribbon, we realize that we are slowly finding them and the people who create them.
Picture Credit : The typewriter art was purchased from DidiFox
