Ann’s Fashion Tarot, Isolation Edition: Temperance.

The Temperance card is about moderation which you might think isn’t happening right now BUT IT IS. You can see it if you zoom out far enough. Think this is too much time in too-close quarters? Your personal claustrophobia is an equal-and-opposite reaction to the frenetic global zig-zagging of germs. Think fresh bangs cut with shitty kitchen shears is tooooo dramatic? It’s probably not dramatic enough. DIY haircuts will definitely destroy your pride, but in these times we need to think beyond ourselves, and if you want to take some action to really help level things out you will charge up the trimmer and mow down your whole head with the guard off. For my own part, quitting eye makeup was an appropriate baby step but probably the way to make a dent of a difference is to fully erase my face.

Clearly this was going great as a spiritual exercise and an art project which consumed most of the afternoon, and the bathroom, until a reporter called to ask what the Arts Center was doing during the shutdown.

I’m like, well, what we’re NOT doing is trying to become a virtual gallery or anything else we’re not already good at, because there’s enough noise online at the moment and now is not the time to bust out anything half-assed. We’re doing what we do well, reaching out to the artists who rely on us to help them stay grounded and connected and inspired. Which obviously looks different on different people.

Temperance says trust the pull.

Ann’s Fashion Tarot: Temperance

Here is the thing. It might not actually look that good on you. Or it might have been perfect, whatever it was, that thing you just put in a garbage bag and took to Goodwill. Which, you know, oh well. Sometimes you just can’t know.

The Temperance card is about unseen forces at work, things you don’t notice when you look in your regular mirror every regular day. It takes imagination and some bravery to take an honest look at the back of your hair or the back of your pants, or whatever, and realize you’re not ever really getting the whole picture. Normal views don’t account for the height of the person behind you, or blinding love, or crippling envy or shitty lighting or somebody else’s bad/good day.

These are the things that contribute to the absolute lack of fashion truth of whatever you’ve got going on. So just forget it. Know that you’re never going to know, and wear it anyway.

Temperance is sponsored by Mankato’s Tandem Bagels, a bright and lovely place that didn’t used to be. 

It was a dank, dark bar until a few great women saw some potential and knocked out some walls, put up some art and started making deliciousness. 

Tomorrow: The Devil.