I’ve been picking up and putting down a 1973 book of journal entries written by an Albuquerque graduate student named C.S. Merrill while she was working as an assistant to Georgia O’Keeffe.
Merrill was 26 at the time (O’Keeffe was 85). Her observations largely read as a transcription of her days at work: descriptions of breakfasts, errands, answering letters. Sometimes it’s boring. But I keep thinking about one line, which Merrill mentions as the single piece of advice O’Keeffe’s previous secretary gave her:
The actual purpose of her job, the secretary instructed, was to “maintain the mystique.” To tend to the daily drivel while protecting the larger plot. To resist giving it all away. To let some things rest, or dissolve, or remain undone.
This month’s prompts consider making a place for ambiguity—whether it’s resisting the need to be understood or making things full of mystery for no reason at all. Leaving everyone guessing can be an act of self-preservation.
Prompts for Maintaining the Mystique
1. PRESERVE THYSELF
“You study, you learn, but you guard the original naiveté.” — Henri Matisse
When life gets off track or you feel like you’re losing the plot, identify a personally sacred source of “returning” to yourself. (Maybe it’s a book, or an album, or a word, or a taste. A smell?)
2. LIPS ARE SEALED
Heard any good gossip? Holding a secret? When did you resist spilling the beans?
3. FUNNY 2 ME
A stranger cataclysmically botching the pronunciation of your name; hearing a techno remix of your default karaoke song blaring in the Band-Aid section at CVS; laughing to yourself when someone randomly references Balzac in public. Recall a time when something was (and will ever only be) funny to you.
4. ME TO YOU
Recall a recent instance of observing yourself through someone else’s perspective (…or perhaps realizing your intentions were misinterpreted).
5. DON’T SHOW YOUR HAND
When did you hold back or purposefully withhold—maybe it was unsavory feedback, the actual price tag, a deflating comment, a detail that distracted from a good story...
6. BORING MYSTERY
Identify an unsolved, ongoing, inconsequential mystery in your daily life, i.e.: maybe your headphones are missing, maybe an anonymous gift has arrived?
7. SALACIOUS MYSTERY
If the above question references the frustrating, mundane edges of the unknown, let’s consider the opposite: what’s the single best unsolved mystery of your life? (If anything, this is a good question for the dinner table. Here’s a never-ending Reddit scroll of oversharing to inspire you.)
8. SPACE FOR POSSIBILITY
“So revel in your mystification and read it as a sign of a healthy future. Whatever happens next, it won’t be what you expected. If it is what you expected, it isn’t what’s happening next.” — Brian Eno, as quoted in Prospect Magazine
What’s something you are allowing yourself to not fully understand? Maybe begrudgingly so; maybe out of a hope for what could be…
Beautiful. Unexpected. Love.
these are some of the best prompts yet. thank you!