Amazon's ode to joy, thanks but no thanks
And what I learn while listening
photo © Erin Johnson The Wynwood Walls Museum Miami, FL
September 22, 2024
The headline was ‘Get outside & together with outdoor living’
The banner at the top of the screen, even better, ‘Cultivate a joyful home’
It was after the fact that I realized it was one of those not-ad-looking-like-ads for amazon. Calculated and strategic, I was seemingly thrown from one social platform, Pinterest, to the next. Yes, I consider amazon a social platform. Or at least one of their fiercest allies. The goals of bait, lure, hook, mine behavior overlay them all. It was exactly what they wanted. What they predicted.
It’s a bizarre, all consuming ecosystem which I’ve definitely become better about spotting and vehemently avoiding at all cost.
On making the meretricious desirable
What I want to point out is the manipulative genius as to how one can make the meretricious desirable. The headline and banner immediately caught my eye, enticing me to buy, nothing short of joy. Not the joy I’m necessarily looking for but joy in the potential form of a poolside chaise. First let me preface that a poolside chaise can bring an incredible amount of pleasure. They are honestly very satisfying and may fulfill a real need. But more often than not, I nor my life would be more joyful if I purchased that along with a few pillows from amazon.
I knew what they were doing. Amazon isn’t a consumption behemoth for nothing. The empire is dripping in psychological manipulation and mastery. Any competing eCommerce store or marketing initiative likely studies it or yields to it.
Aware, disillusioned, and with a hint of spite, I took a screenshot to study it myself. Damn!!
I was pissed. Sad even. Luckily not enough to sour my mood for very long.
Damn amazon, cultivate joy, get together, outside, really!?
I’ll definitely get outside and start livin’ pretty, once I get those pillows.
I had to laugh. At all of it. At myself.
But it got me thinking. They hit on something.
One’s relationship with the outdoors is one of the most valuable and precious relationships to either continue or restore. Synonymous with that, it has the potential to be amplified if shared. For me life is at its best when I’m surrounded by my dearest friends or my beloved and there is laughter, music, dance, and food. (Notice the lack of stuff) It’s also a huge reason why I tend a garden. These experiences are what I desire and continually seek out. I believe this is innate to the very ecology of who we are and what we desire—a harmonious relationship with all sentient and non sentient organisms in our surroundings.
Soul singing in a sea of generative AI
During dinner last week my husband and I were talking about our favorite female singers. It was part of a larger conversation about the ways we as humans communicate and recognize emotion, soul, and passion. We’re wired for connection. As a listener or witness there’s an opportunity to be energetically or literally moved by the heart and soul of the artist. There is medicine in music. It can transform and transmute.
It’s of no coincidence that we landed on two of the oldest forms of expression: rhythmic vocalization through song or poetry and dance. Both have the ability to access the spirit in a raw, honest, and tangible way. And when it’s present, the feeling is undeniable from those it touches.
Bonnie Raitt, Dolly Parton, Nina Simone, Andrea Gibson, Kayli Ka’iulani Carr (to name just a few as the list could go on for pages) have a force as mighty as the sun which emanates from them. I feel the heart in their voice and the soul in their movements. No auto tune, not AI generated, just raw, real, powerful, and connected. They are tapping into what I can only think is the source of joy, pure creative energy.
This invisible force is the same energy which fuels infectious belly laughter, the instinctual memory my auntie channels when making a delicious meal, or the song you may sing to an audience of shower tiles and streaming water. This is what makes a joyful home and fills the spaces between us.
I also think beauty can be a starting point, a threshold to cross. But beauty as an aesthetic and mood more than an accumulation of things. I agree with Theaster Gates, beauty matters because of the feelings it evokes. It affects everything. It’s the feeling that sets the first domino tile in motion.
In the essay, Why Beauty Matters* he says, “at every level of the human experience, we are looking for the beautiful, something that gives priority to our souls, not just our physical needs. We drink in nature, we yearn to commune with the beautiful, we crave the sublime, so that’s why the starting point for everything I do is the beautiful, not the practical.”
Choosing not to consume
Going back to amazon, I was curious where “cultivate a joyful home” would lead me after clicking. Okay, I look at this as an experiment. It was not the soulful sublime, but rather a product page neatly curated with a selection of washable rugs, outdoor chairs with waterproof fabrics, and modular-like fire pits. Fans of all shapes and sizes, with or without misting capability, plastic Euro wine glasses, and patio umbrellas with fringe! It was all that and a lot more.
Good marketing is no joke, but I still think it’s a game. Know when you’re playing. Know when you’re getting played. The only reason why the messaging feels meaningful is because they’ve identified some sticky wound, sore spot, or void and strategically planted a trigger and solution that only they can provide. It’s up to us to ask the personal questions—am I buying to buy, am I buying into an attachment or a false sense of freedom, am I guying more cheap shit, where is this coming from and where will it eventually end up?
Would this make my life more enjoyable? I doubt it. Would it make it more beautiful? Not in the nuanced, time crafted, artful way that I actually want to create. What I would have is more stuff.
So instead I find myself asking in what ways beauty is already present in my surroundings and remember that I must cultivate an ode to joy.
Yours, Erin
I’m starting two new segments: What I Learn While Listening and Today in the Garden. One of which will be included at the bottom of the essay. It’s a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ into my day to day and what’s in my orbit. Enjoy.
What I Learn While Listening
The Handsome podcast with Tig Notaro, Mae Martin, and Fortune Feimster is fantastic. It’s hysterical and real and so full of love. Because of Handsome, I was turned on to the poet Andrea Gibson. Immediately interested, I looked them up and have absolutely fallen in love. I think they capture what I’ve been talking about—that which is equally joyful and wretched. When the soul is full.
One of Andrea’s poems: (text below or you can listen to them read it)
A difficult life is not less worth living than a gentle one.
Joy is simply easier to carry than sorry.
And your heart could lift a city
from how long you’ve spent holding
what’s been nearly impossible to hold.
But the world needs those who know how to do that.
Those who could find a tunnel
with no light at the end of it.
And hold it up like a telescope
to show the darkness contains many truths
that could bring the light to its knees.
Grief astronomer.
Adjust the lens.
Look close.
Tell the world what you see.