In one of Jean-Paul Sartre’s seminal works; Nausea, the main protagonist; an historian by the name of Roquentin, goes through the disquieting experience of the world becoming too real for him. In the novel, the world gradually becomes more and more imposing, as if the reality is breaking through his will; his ability to impose…
My take-out from COVID-19? It is all about trade-offs.
I hate commuting. Literally hate it (and I actually know what the word ‘literally’ means). I drive to work, at least I did before COVID, and I considered the time I spent in the car as dead time. That hour and a half in the car added nothing to my life. I felt that was…
News is an illusion
All definitions of the term ‘news’ are a variation on: newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent events. News, for those of you who don’t know, is an acronym that stands for: notable events, weather, sports. I am a recovering news and political addict. I listened to the news constantly on my commute, read…
Anti-Intellectualism
In January, 1980 Isaac Asimov wrote an essay in News Week about anti-intellectualism in the United States. In his essay he states: “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.” When…
The meaning of life
Let me clarify – I don’t know what the meaning of life is. I think most people will stop reading at this point. And that’s fine. But I do have a theory on how we might discover what the meaning of life. At one time I believed that the meaning of life is something I…
A post COVID-19 world – 3 predictions
There are myriad articles sprouting across the internet predicting what a post COVID-19 world will look like. Most of them are full of shit. The predictions vary from, we’re all going to work from home, to, the global economy is going to fundamentally change. This is our chance to make it more fair, more equitable…
A time where everyone became the ‘other’
COVID-19 has changed our lives. Some of the changes I hope endure, however, most of them I’d be happy to never experience again. And there will be side-effects to what we’ve been going through the past few months. One of these effects is the erosion of trust. The world’s response to COVID-19 was to train…
This is the first draft of my novel…
COVID-19, time and the gift I’m not seeing
I write, every day. I try to learn, every day. And I run towards my fear.
10 ideas – what I will do with the time Coronavirus and social distancing has afforded me
Each day I sit down to come up with 10 ideas. The ideas don’t have to be spectacular or particularly interesting. The only requirement is that they appear. 10 ideas is me exercising my creativity muscle. The more ideas I come up with the better I should become at coming up with ideas. At least,…