Tender maps: emotional landscape
La Carte du Tendre was a popular game in 17th-century Parisian salons. It was played on so-called tenderness maps, which looked a lot like boardgames. The maps were meant to be allegorical representations of the heart. They depicted a landscape, where different roads lead to different types of love. Through certain manoeuvres (love letters, gallantry, seduction, gifts), the player could progress along the routes to various possible destinations. There were pleasant towns where love might be found. But there were also dark forests where the players got lost, or stormy seas and deep lakes where they drowned — ending up there meant game over.
Passion by contrast was left on the fringes, where 'lies La Mer Dangereuse, rocky but otherwise uncharted, and beyond that again are Terres Inconnues
Create your own La Carte du Tender to understand what you’re feeling.
With lesson I’m asking you to reimagine the maps in total.
What’s the purpose of the map? To know where you are, to know the direction how to get somewhere.
Right, sure. But what if we can have a map of our emotions to know where we’ve been and see the Picks of Love or the Meadow of Joy, and, probably, stay away from the Forest of Grief?
And even if we are right now in the Dark Dark Wasteland we can draw ourselves a few tiny trails out. To know that what we feel is not forever. To reassure ourselves that there is a way out and we are the ones who can create one.
So I invite you to an expedition. Gear up, put your comfortable clothes on, get yourself a hot warming drink, who knows how long you will be absent. And let your emotions spill.
What’s the purpose of the map? To know where you are, to know the direction how to get somewhere.
Right, sure. But what if we can have a map of our emotions to know where we’ve been and see the Picks of Love or the Meadow of Joy, and, probably, stay away from the Forest of Grief?
And even if we are right now in the Dark Dark Wasteland we can draw ourselves a few tiny trails out. To know that what we feel is not forever. To reassure ourselves that there is a way out and we are the ones who can create one.
So I invite you to an expedition. Gear up, put your comfortable clothes on, get yourself a hot warming drink, who knows how long you will be absent. And let your emotions spill.
…walk the way of your emotions.
Read Entry #1 - Creative Writing
Entry #2 - Emotional Drawing
Entry #3 - Meeting your Inner Child
Entry #4 - Spark of creativity
Entry #2 - Emotional Drawing
Entry #3 - Meeting your Inner Child
Entry #4 - Spark of creativity
