Take a breath. Be your best. Have a memorable style.

Joonathan David Cain

When we say the words ‘style', often the first images are clothing or home decor. But, style can mean so much more than how we appear in public. Style is also our way of being. How we move through the world.

There is a great line in the movie The Joy Luck Club following a tense dining room exchange over a crab dinner between two of the daughters of old friends - June (sweet and quiet) and Waverly (intense and driven). The girls have been rivals for a long time. Waverly makes an issue with June about her abilities in advertising to score points and embarrass her. June’s mother makes a comment about ‘style’. June takes offense, perceiving it as a slight by her mother. June confronts her mother in the kitchen feeling hurt and dismayed. Her mother says, “Everybody else want best quality (crab). Your thinking different. You take worst. Everyone else want first quality. You take last because you have best quality heart. You have style no one can teach. I see you."

It is a tearful moment of recognition about her mother seeing her daughter’s quiet nobility. It brings up a question - How can we move through this world in a way that matters? Do we engage people in an open, loving, and accepting way? Or, do we dismiss, bully, and push aside others? How we support each other. How we speak to each other. How we share, consider, and hold space for each other. All of these are part of our being.

Hopefully we are all working on being a little more patient. A little more kind. A little more understanding. At the end of our lives, we should hope to be remembered as ‘having a style no one can teach.’

---

Jonathan Dvid Cain

Jonathan Cain is a native of Florence, Alabama, and has been the current Curator for the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art located in Tuscumbia, AL, since January 2020. He functioned in that role previously for several years before leaving to pursue a career in education. He holds an undergraduate degree in graphic design from the University of North Alabama and graduate degrees from both the University of Mississippi (MFA – Sculpture) and the University of North Alabama (MA – Clinical Mental Health). He is an eclectic artist who likes to pursue many different media.