Going in Circles — The illusion of control

Kia Ora Laurie

How do you centre clay on a potter's wheel?

Best, Eleanor 

Dear Eleanor,

I write to you today from an enormous spinning rock circling a fiery ball in an unfathomably massive galaxy tumbling through eternity. 

Having made pots for over a quarter of a century I’m still trying to centre. The trouble is that everything keeps moving. Especially my mind. So, after decades of obedience, trying to get the clay to spin evenly in the middle of my wheel, I am embracing being off-centre. Potters make a big deal of centring because it makes us feel like we are in control. Foolishly, we try to hold the Earth still, a pound at a time. This aspirational stillness gives me vertigo. I can feel the planet's great centrifugal life force trying to flick me off. I want equilibrium but need harmony and harmony resides in the acceptance of chaos, which in turn is hard to accept. I am centring now, trying to get these ideas to come together. The enduring conundrum with spinning your wobbles into stillness is that the moment you arrive at your immaculate centre, you realise how boring being centred is and yearn to be wobbly again. 

Good Luck,

XL