One Day : Sheila Lam - Writer
Location : Florence, Italy
Profession / passion : Writer
Instagram : @sheilalam
One Day is an ongoing project sparked by the Covid-19. In the days of isolation we would like to focus on what we do best; bringing people together. Read more about the project here.
We will be posting one new day of someones life every day until we run out of contributors. See our instagram stories to experience these peoples One Day in action.
A text, song or film that everyone should experience.
I've just finished watching The Scent Of Green Papayafrom director Tran Anh Hung. A film which Roger Ebert describes as a “great visual beauty; watching it is like seeing a poem for the eyes.”
What is the story behind your profession/passion?
I studied business at university but after a year of working as a corporate consultant, I realised it wasn't what I wanted to be doing. So in 2014, I applied for an editorial internship with no publishing experience at a luxury lifestyle magazine in Vancouver. Thankfully, my future editor took a chance and hired me based on my Instagram. I've been writing ever since.
How do you want people to react to your work/passion?
Honestly.
How has the current situation affected how you work?
Exactly one week before the WHO declared this a global pandemic, I arrived in Florence for a writer's residency with Numeroventi. I am still here. I've had one of my clients in London, where I’m based, suspend my contract for now but thankfully I'm fortunate enough to continue working from Florence otherwise.
Your greatest achievement?
Creating work with my friends: I am a correspondent for Cereal magazine and just last year helped publish a book called Faculty Department.
Function or form?
Both but I often argue that form in itself can be a function.
Your best trait?
My ataraxia.
What traits do you treasure in other people?
Cognisance. Particularly now, people who have a high level of self-awareness.
Your most treasured possession?
Apple iCloud and Google Drive.
What was the most defining moment in your life?
Probably being born on the day, at the exact time, and place that I was. I’m very into astrology if that wasn’t obvious.
Who do you miss?
My friends.
When was the last time you learned something new and what was it?
I recently learnt that wisteria is a genus of plant in the legume family. So it's essentially purple flowering beans.
How do you relax?
Right now, by laying out in the sun at midday—inside by the window. (Please stay home if you can.)
What does freedom mean to you?
Freedom of mind and preoccupation, which these days is a privilege I'm trying not to take for granted.
Should calm come from within or be facilitated by the environment?
Calm should come from wherever it can for you.
Marcel Proust said nothing exists within itself. Are we brought to life by way of contrast?
Plato's Cyclical Argument also supports this. The first assertion being that "all things come to be from their opposite states". I'm not sure a lived contrast is required but there is a need for awareness and an understanding of contrasts in life to have perspective—especially now. I can look at my situation of being stranded as a hardship but I am safe and healthy and that's not a luxury many can claim right now. I am figuratively and quite literally brought to life by recognising that.
Lastly, how do wish to see this current situation have a positive impact on our lives?
This passage from Charles Eisenstein's essay "The Coronation"is a perfect summation:
"Please don’t think that choosing love over fear can be accomplished solely through an act of will, and that fear too can be conquered like a virus. The virus we face here is fear, whether it is fear of Covid-19, or fear of the totalitarian response to it, and this virus too has its terrain. Fear, along with addiction, depression, and a host of physical ills, flourishes in a terrain of separation and trauma: inherited trauma, childhood trauma, violence, war, abuse, neglect, shame, punishment, poverty, and the muted, normalized trauma that affects nearly everyone who lives in a monetized economy, undergoes modern schooling, or lives without community or connection to place. This terrain can be changed, by trauma healing on a personal level, by systemic change toward a more compassionate society, and by transforming the basic narrative of separation: the separate self in a world of other, me separate from you, humanity separate from nature. To be alone is a primal fear, and modern society has rendered us more and more alone. But the time of Reunion is here. Every act of compassion, kindness, courage, or generosity heals us from the story of separation, because it assures both actor and witness that we are in this together."