“Curses!” he shouted. “I’m just so unlucky” continued my seven-year-old. He had lost the game of table football with his younger brother. Our five-year-old had been spinning the foosball handles wildly. Barely attempting to actually play. It had been too much to compete with really. The whole thing was a… Read More »On parental guiding: What I can’t teach my son
Towers without visitors We think of a folly as a false start. A hiccup. A problem. But the word has a deeper meaning. Its origins are related to the construction of ornamental buildings which have no practical purpose. Rich Englishmen built ornate towers, in remote gardens, often as a source… Read More »On Personal Development: Meditation, Side Projects, and Digital Follies
At the side of my side project… I’ve built a side project! It’s given a mix of satisfaction and anticipation. That particular feeling that arrives when you complete something. Get it over the line. Ready to put out into the world. Not exactly the triumphant feeling that you maybe imagined… Read More »Reveal your destiny: Red Lantern Readings
Moving pictures can do strange things. Evoke memories. Stir old feelings. Videos recorded to VHS from the 90s and early 2000s have a vintage quality to them. Capturing the essence of moments, although clumsily. Filming conducted without the rapid feedback loops of today’s attention economy. Before the long long month… Read More »Choosing Steadiness: Awareness, Trust, and Movement in Challenging Times
I’m thinking about the Traitors. The show is very entertaining. Mainly due to the spectacle of watching group psychology in action. People playing are trying to win. They come up with various strategies to manipulate each other and drive narratives. It appeals to us watching as we can feel smarter.… Read More »On hidden information: The Traitors made me think
Exhausted. Spent. Worn out. All of this, but also exhilarated. Several years away from Muay Thai will do that to you. The pads don’t care. The trainer doesn’t care. And your body? That doesn’t care either. It just responds. The breath rate returns, energy surges back for the session. Adrenaline… Read More »Kickboxing, the present moment, and new beginnings
Who will remember you? “I’m not bothered what people know of me in four generations.” “That’s narcissistic!” This is a paraphrased excerpt from a recent popular podcast. Eric Weinstein was calling Steven Bartlett a narcissist. Essentially for not caring if anyone remembered him in 120 years. Of course, they were… Read More »Personal legacy in a collapsing world
Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall todayWill the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way? There’s a lot packed into these two lines. They come from Children of the Grave, by Black Sabbath. The track itself pulses with urgency, warning, and a kind of longing.… Read More »Disengagement, Doom, and the Courage to Love
“When do people get phones? And who teaches them how to use them?” My six-year-old son asked today. Implicit in the questions was an assumption. That getting a phone is a natural stage of the human life cycle. Like puberty or growing up. It struck me that it pretty much… Read More »Parenting Milestones: This could be the Last Time
Depths of despair I lay still. I stared at the ceiling. The orange glow of the streetlight slanted through the naff blinds. That colour reminded me of hope. Not a nice hope, but a mocking hope. Optimism felt fanciful, like a fairytale. Something other people had but never me. I… Read More »Lost in My Own Mind – And How I Found the Way Out
That salute. Beating his chest and throwing his arm to the sky. Twice. The world’s richest man outing himself as the global king of controversy. There have been remarkable achievements in his lifetime, sure. Yet that’s tarnished now. Trashed. Revealed to be driven by a megalomanic urge to get to… Read More »On that salute: The starting gun for the techno fascist regime
It flashed again. Excitement. The over-large purple cursor waited for him. Blinking on the screen. I’d had to disable the touchpad due to his fidgeting near it. That had been moving the mouse. His face was bright. Reflecting both the light of the laptop and his own energy. His eyes… Read More »How to Boost Future Excitement: See through Children’s Eyes