Am I a mess?

I’ve watched Diary more times than I can count. I can quote bits of the film, give you a slightly too detailed yet somehow abridged synopsis and even own all three films on DVD after getting too frustrated that they kept moving streaming services.

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), the first of a three film series, was released 22 years ago. While many aspects of the film have not aged well — it really is a product of its time — watching it still brings me so much comfort. I’ve recently wondered what keeps me wanting to watch it again and again.

I think it might be Bridget.

Bridget is a bit of a mess. This might be putting it lightly. She somehow manages to swing from one awkward moment to the next. She’s clumsy. She says the wrong thing. She wears the wrong thing. She always seems to do the wrong thing.

at the moment.” When it feels like everything is out of control and there’s too much going on, I always seem to fall on the explanation that I’m a mess. I think I might have described myself as a mess more than I have described myself as anything else.

life — she doesn’t need to change in order for things to go her way. She doesn’t have a dramatic makeover or realisation where suddenly everything is clearer and calmer. Even when new parts of her life start to fall apart. As Bridget says, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.”

Bridget doesn’t get less messy as the

Bridget exists as herself wholeheartedly. She openly feels her feelings, whatever they require. Whether it is moping on the couch with a tub of ice cream, or professing her truest thoughts to whoever needs to hear them. She does what she wants, when she wants. Throughout the films, Bridget is allowed to be Bridget, in all her messiness and complexity.

A quick search of my texts revealed far too many occasions where I’ve apologised for doing something not quite right, with saying things along the lines of “Sorry, I’m just a bit of a mess

Whilst Bridget seems like she is trying to pull her life together — she has a large collection of self-help books and starts the titular diary to track her was stupid and didn’t mean it. And yet, it turns out that he had left to buy her a new diary. For a new start.

I’ve been thinking about this idea that the author Glennon Doyle has about people who feel like they are a mess. She says that rather than being a mess, we are instead people who feel a lot in a world that is messy. You are not a mess, the world is. We feel messy because we are paying attention.

In a world that is constantly full of stress and confusion, it makes sense to feel messy. It makes sense to feel unsure. Everything might be out of control. But also, everything might be okay. We don’t know what is going to happen. Maybe today will be blue soup, but what if tomorrow won’t be?

Maybe I am a mess. Maybe Bridget one too. Maybe neither of us are. What if you aren’t a mess? What if we are all just trying our best, and maybe just maybe, that is good enough.

Art by Veronica Lenard

Magical creatures from around the world

Dragons, Phoenix, Kraken, Sphinx… As humans, we never seem to get tired of the old tales, magical myths, and adventurous stories about mystical creatures. Each culture has their own history of creatures that defy explanation. Let me take you on a journey across space and time to find out more.

Over the mountains, over the sea

“Wish to be a Bi Yi bird and fly together with you in the sky” — here, we find a famous Chinese idiom to describe loyal love, from a poem The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (Cháng Hèn Gē) written by Bai Juyi. Each Bi Yi bird only has one eye, one leg and one wing. They can fly only when they are side by side. The Bi Yi bird is recorded in an ancient Chinese book called Classics of Mountains and Seas (Shān Hǎi Jīng). With a history of more than two thousand years, the book is mainly about the magical flora and fauna found in the mountains and the sea.

Travelling in the world of Shān Hǎi Jīng, you may find yourself on a strange hill filled with streams and rivers, but there are no trees or grass. It’s called Mount Di (Dǐ Shān). This is just the beginning. Every sentence after this one will become stranger and stranger. There’s a kind of fish here called “Lù”. It looks a bit like a cow or an ox. However, it has a snake’s tail, and wings too. Let me remind you that there’s a lot of water here, except Lù, even as a kind of fish, lives on the hillsides. It also hibernates. If you have swelling issues, eating Lù could help.

Kate Zhang takes you on a journey through time and space.

Sentence

Throughout the dynasties, there are other collections of creatures, monsters and magical stories, such as the Album on Beasts (Shòu Pǔ). The book is crafted by two court painters under the order of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Many creatures are recorded as signs of auspiciousness to show the prosperity of the country, such as Qilin. Confucius is said to be born after his mother dreamt about Qilin in her arms. If you are stuck on assignments, maybe Bai Ze can help you. It is said that they know everything. The Yellow Emperor recorded their knowledge of how to defend the evil monsters, therefore protecting his citizens.

We hide, until late night

In Japanese folklore, there’s an