Knowledge is Power, DIY Aesthetic: A Hamptons Tale.

Written By: Lauren  Wong
I never thought that a book could change my life, or that a trip to the local Barnes & Noble could lead my life in another direction, but it did.  Unemployed and broke, I went to the local library and taught myself Social Media skills I learned from a book on the subject I borrowed but did not buy at the store.  The workers did not chastise me for not purchasing anything. I often went to the Starbucks located inside the Barnes & Noble to get energy to fuel my brain and to warm my belly. However, it was the hope of a new life, a meaningful life that warmed my soul (and that possibility came from that book from Barnes & Noble about Do It Yourself or DIY–aka Self Help).
I went to the local library and went online to create my social media accounts and to try and obtain some local followers and I was able to obtain the following of CA Inc. or Computer Associates and I was amazed at how quickly I was able to get both individual local artists, writers, business, and socialites to follow me on my Twitter account.  I was really thrilled to have some new friends online and this gave me great comfort, knowing I was not alone in a new place (the East End), but that this was a friendly place, a people place, a human place.   As Blanche Du Bois would say, “I always relied on the Kindness of Strangers”.  Yes, indeed–from the local bartender at the Blue Parrot who gave me a ride to a girl whose father is in construction, to an art gallery owner, to a retired couple who had a software company but retired here on the East End, this is why the Hamptons is great–it’s safe, it’s healthy delectable local foods, and the most amazing beaches and wildlife in North East America.
When I see the vastness of the sands on the beach, and the setting sun, the colors of the sky at sunset, I think of Mark Rothko, and no matter how famous he is, he must have seen the East Hampton sunset, because it is the closest to perfection I have experienced in my life.  Having travelled the world, from Europe to Asia as well as the entire United States and Canada & Mexico, I have never experienced such sunsets in terms of lyrical colors from pink to purple from tiffany blue to dark navy.  In terms of gardens, would it be outlandish to say some of the greatest gardens and landscape designers come from the East End? Learning from Stonehenge or from the Maya, the contemporaries have created private gardens like living masterpieces from organic material such as roses, lavender, magnolia, dill, mint, as well as willow trees, and great oaks.
Did I forget to mention the stars? Nowhere outside of the wild west also known as the four corners of America: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada have I seen (as Carl Sagan would say) millions and billions of stars–brilliant like diamonds shining in the vast Milky Way and making everything alright and perfect for a moment or two or 3…When I see the sparkling illuminated night sky, all of my worries and earthly problems subside, and I think about all that is great and possible in the world, and it makes me want to cry, as I am tearing right now, because how can one be sad, when there is such immense beauty out there? If we can only live as perfectly and beautifully as the stars in the sky, and be kind to one another, yet maintain our own sense of identity, just as the individual stars are seemingly connected to constellations, so we too are connected to one another, as brothers and sisters of this earth, this family of man, and we must “have courage, be brave, and be kind”.