The gentle art of sanity amidst civilization
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The first few times I heard about God, I was already suspicious. My earliest clear memory of it was when I was five, leaning against the screen door of our small town home with my older sister, watching a midsummer thunderstorm unfold. We were in awe, like I have been at every thunderstorm since. I [...]
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Few books have been recommended to me so frequently and gushingly as Dubner and Levitt’s Freakonomics. After tracking down a used copy in a musty Brisbane book exchange, I devoured it before lunch the next day. It really is a compelling book. Its premise is that conventional wisdom is often wrong, because society’s experts use [...]
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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 [...]
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Yesterday I came across a familiar quote on Twitter: “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” ~ Thomas Edison Then today I came across an equally interesting quote from another historical figure: “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” ~ Ben Franklin Oh. With the information age [...]
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Meet Jake. Jake is a black-and-beige beetle I found in my bathroom garbage pail about a week ago. He seems in no hurry to leave. I don’t know what he’s been up to all week, but for now he’s residing in the maze of tissues and toilet paper rolls in my little white bucket. For [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television. ~Andrew Ross I am indeed prone to hyperbole, but I’ll go ahead and say it: the advent of writing is by far the greatest tipping point in all of civilization. Often I think about the instant [...]
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