I’m tired.
I got up at 5 this morning to go out and shoot a scene on the railroad. I’ve been stressed about it from day one. The railroads I felt safe going on are the disused ones but they’ve become so disused in the past five years that they scarcely look like train tracks these days (don’t kids bush drink on abandoned train tracks anymore?).
In the end, I settled for the more illegal but still safe option of a new railroad they are building as part of the preparation for the Ryder Cup here in a couple of years. There’s a crossing I pass on the way to the gym, and I reckoned I’d be less of a scaredy cat if it was dawn (also good for lighting), and so up I got and out I went, and I think I got the shots. That leaves just a couple of little bits in the forest, which I’ll be getting tomorrow, and the end is in sight.
For whatever reason, it’s been far more challenging than the beautiful life was, but the finish line is in sight. On that note, I’m excited to share this video with you. This is the intro to thoreau. I think it came out great.
This Week’s Daily Pieces
Okay, now let’s talk about the daily pieces. So, another seven pieces this week, which is cool. Some doubts surfaced in the middle of the week, leaving me wondering just what I was doing and then by later in the week had dissipated entirely. So we’re still going strong.
The Beautiful Mess Effect (aka The Courage to Shine): Monday’s piece was a personal reflection on Tall Poppy Syndrome and the Beautiful Mess Effect. How we fear the exposure of being different yet idiosyncrasy is what we love most in others
The Birth of Erosophy: a playful piece about being a recovering philosophiliac and introducing the term erosophy — a more passionate love of wisdom
Reflections on the Seven Year Rule (aka Buddhist Sleight of Hand): some thoughts I had about a pop Buddhist piece I read last week and the reductionism at the heart of Buddhism
Self-Knowledge: The Elusive Truth: a hungover piece reflecting on an aphorism written during my Camino hike in 2023 and the difference between external inspiration and internal inspiration
The Satan’s Crucible: on Friday, I shared one of my old poems and certainly one of my favourites, which is about undergoing transformation
The Archetypalisation of Bob Dylan: another piece prompted by John Moriarty’s work. I’ll be thinking about this idea for a long time to come: dissolving individuality to merge with archetype.
Other updates
The podcast with PF Jung devolved into our usual shooting of the breeze, but enjoyable as ever. I don’t know that I have anything political to say these days anyway. But I do feel like this whole miasma is beginning to consolidate into something solid. The writing feels like a key part of that, even if I am embarrassed some days for how chaotic it all is.
It’s consoling to know that this time next week thoreau will be out in the world!
