I went to a gig last night without leaving my kitchen table. It was online, of course, the way everything is these days. I switched off the overhead light, flicked on the Christmas lights that remain attached to the wall (I don’t think they’ll ever come down), and I sat still. My life, in its … Continue reading Things Are Bound to be Improving
On feeling precarious right now.
We’re not quite done with it yet, but as good as. Just a couple more days and we’ll be into a new year with fresh challenges. Are you glad to see the back of 2020, or were there some things about the year that surprised you and that you secretly quite liked?
I am slowly reading Flann O’Brien’s Irish classic, The Third Policeman. Slowly, because of his complex circumlocution, or rather, that of his characters, all of whom have a long-winded way of saying things. When eventually they do get to the point, it is rather unclear what that point might be, which, in itself might be … Continue reading The Courage to Say No
What if holding on opinion is over-rated and not making up one's mind is the better place to be?
British yachtsman, Alex Thomson, is currently competing in the Vendée-Globe; a round-the-world, single-handed sailing race. It should take him around ten to eleven weeks to complete it. I heard him interviewed on the radio one morning this week, just nine days in. I shivered with horror as I lay in bed calculating how many days … Continue reading Navigating the Doldrums
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately: not knowing; having a blank slate; feeling uninformed and therefore not able to put forward a considered opinion; having hardly any of the answers; not being sure what I am writing about. It’s not fashionable these days to say you don’t know, or that you haven’t made up … Continue reading Knowing Nothing
Today, I am obsessing about spikes.
Elon Musk has implanted a chip into the brain of a pig. I found the story compelling when I read about it over the weekend. It’s another of his pioneering experiments, this time with a view to having us control phones or computers with our minds sometime in the future. Sounds supernatural, magic, mad! But … Continue reading Are You On My Wavelength?
At first, I thought it was nighttime roadworks. Or an ambulance pulled in by the side of the street, its lights flashing. Largely, I’d pushed the flickering to the back of my mind, dismissing it as some sort of strobe lighting outside. That was until I heard the BOOM! Then I knew it was the … Continue reading A Terrible Beauty
