The gentle art of sanity amidst civilization
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Despite the earnest efforts of sixty years of Miss USA contestants, world peace has not arrived on our doorstep. The UN has not managed it, nor did John Lennon or Oprah or The Secret. Religion sure made a mess of the effort altogether, and I don’t hold high hopes for China to pull it off, [...]
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I forged my own blade yesterday, from an unassuming piece of plain steel. With some expert instruction, I pounded it on an anvil, ground the blade down, fitted it with a brass hilt, polished and sharpened it. The handle is made out of native timber that was salvaged from a dismantled insane asylum.
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Though the hysteria surrounding the H1N1 flu has left the entirety of the news-watching world with the encouraging habit of frequent handwashing, it is hard to call it anything but an overreaction.
Not to dismiss the crushing impact of even one person’s death to their loved ones, but when we venture into the realm of cold [...]
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Sweaty, muddy and bleeding a little, the three of us picked our way through the overgrown ‘trail’ that snakes between Blue Lake campground and the remote, mythical Goblin Lake. We were traversing the final leg of our return trip through a wondrous forest of moss, bogs and toadstools, but the hike had been taxing. We [...]
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Just behind the little gas tank door on my Honda, there is a silver scratch in the paint, about the size of a dime. It looks almost like an upside-down Nike swoosh. The panel is a little bit dented.
I know exactly when it happened.
It was a Friday in June 2006, I was new at my [...]
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Hidden somewhere in a pile of my own bad prose and abandoned bucket lists, in a tattered grocery bag in my storage room, lies the secret to happiness and peace.
It’s scrawled on a fifty-cent note of Canadian Tire Money, in dark purple Jiffy marker. Just four potent words, but they triggered a flood of insights [...]
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I’m fascinated with how our world changes over a relatively short time. Technology, infrastructure, culture and fashion just can’t stay put for long. Humans are so amazing because they have a habit of completely reinventing their habitat every generation or so.
Undoubtedly this is also a big reason why we are so troubled. Every generation is [...]
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It seems to me that person by person, humanity is just beginning to wake up to something great. Every day I see evidence of more and more people taking a step back from the well-worn grooves of tradition, and finding a way to live that makes sense for themselves.
More people are quitting the corporate race [...]
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If I have a hero, it’s Ralph Waldo Emerson. He represents to me humanity’s potential: wise, self-reliant, honest, unencumbered by conformity, and able to enjoy every little detail of life as if they were all miracles.
He possessed the hallmark of a human being ahead of his time: he was hailed as a genius and simultaneously [...]
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I have great news.
You are the star of the most poignant film ever conceived. An unprecedented epic saga, it is filmed in one continuous shot, from the first-person perspective. The sets are rich with detail, the lighting always underlines the mood perfectly, the cinematography always magnificent yet unpretentious.
The supporting cast is top notch, too. [...]
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Follow David on his year-long solo trip to Thailand and New Zealand, on the new blog David Goes Kiwi. Many stories, photos and adventures await.