Dear Mark and Wallis,

Mark, I was pleased to discover your cheerful question among the flood of letters responding to Issue #313. Some of those letters were beautifully articulated, exploring both sides of the “separating the artist from their art” debate. Although I appreciated reading them for their sometimes strengthening, sometimes softening effect, finding something uncontroversial and straightforward to answer was, well, a relief.

So, what do I eat for lunch? No steaming bowl of broth and crusty bread for me. Every lunchtime, for the past year, I’ve eaten exclusively a homemade açai bowl. This involves mashing some frozen açai – a super drupe that grows on the açai palm in the Amazon – into a bowl, then sprinkling over a layer of granola, followed by some vegan protein powder on top. Then I chop half a banana and a couple of strawberries and arrange them on top of that. I add a spoonful of almond butter, some poppy seeds, and if I’m feeling reckless, some goji berries. Delicious! Nutritious! But not for everyone, it seems.

As I write this Red Hand File, Seán O’Hagan stops by to continue the conversation we started in lockdown in 2020. This conversation became our book, Faith, Hope and Carnage, and it continues, unabated, to this day.

“You want lunch?” I ask.
“Sure,” he says.
I make him an açai bowl.
“What the fuck is that?”
“Lunch.”
He pokes at it.
“It’s got granola in it…goji berries…”
“Yeah, I know, it’s an açai bowl.”
“Yeah, but it isn’t lunch,” he says – then off we go, discussing this and debating that, a strengthening here and a softening there, and always a deep privilege.

And it reminds me that we all stand before the world with our faculties – our minds, bodies, mouths, and hands – each of us shaping the environment around us. What we think, do, and say is fundamental to the survival of this grand human project. Each of us is precious, and our actions are vital, everything we do and say matters. We can speak beauty into the world or poison it with our words; we can build things up or tear them down; we can dream of a world that is vast, alive, and interesting, or reason it to be small, hard, and empty. “We are each an artist”, said the poet, priest, and philosopher John O’Donohue, “We each possess an imagination. Everyone, whether they like it or not, is involved in the construction of the world”. Every action we take and every word we speak builds or breaks the planet. We must approach the world as collaborators and willing participants in its preservation, and each other, Wallis, as friends.

Love, Nick