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Adventurousness

On building a better civilization

We all live in civilization, but what is it? Does civilization mean anything? I think it’s important to have a good answer to this, because so often in politics we are talking about what we dislike, what we are against and what we are trying to prevent. For example, we are trying to stop climate change from disrupting civilization. But if we focus our whole mind around stopping the bad thing, climate change, we don’t think about what we value… Read More »On building a better civilization

The Pike – a poem

A poem I wrote when I first arrived in Oxford. It felt wonderful to be standing in the footsteps of so many others. I wanted to work at inheriting the experience of the ages, and doing something with it. Standing by the river in Oxford University Parks, I was thinking of a poem by Ted Hughes about a pike, and how the pikes also have their lineage, of their experience down in the depths. ‎ Under the river(As deep as… Read More »The Pike – a poem

Bon Iver: 00000 Million

Justin Vernon, from Bon Iver, wrote about having lived in so many places, and being pushed into so many roles and personas, by so many groups over his life: ‘who knows how many poses that I’ve been in’. I often feel this way: how many poses I’ve been put in, or put myself in, over time. This line is part of his beautiful song called ‘00000 Million’. The chorus has a sample from an Irish folk song – a voice… Read More »Bon Iver: 00000 Million

Losing and finding hope

Recently I feel I have lost the sense of leading my own life. It feels more like life has been leading me. I have been feeling weighed down by the weight of it all: what a gigantic task it is to try to influence the world even a little bit; how hard it is to sort out my emotions enough so they don’t end up pushing me into the rabbit hole of running away from it all (playing Diablo III,… Read More »Losing and finding hope