Dear Readers,
How are we doing? I feel like… what do I feel like? Like it’s been a while. After last week’s letter, my friend Nicola got in touch and she had good thoughts about things going in cycles. I wrote about little infinite loops and maybe there’s a connection between the two. Maybe we’re forever cycling, and it’s up to us to realise the size of the loops, and the pace of the cycles. I like that, I was never a fan of linear time.
Since I last wrote to you I have been putting things in boxes. Mostly physical things. We’re moving, The Muse and Myself, from this big fat city that we’ve called home for a long time to a small place by the sea with room for ourselves and The Kittycats and any of you lovely lot who want to come visit. It’s good for us and it is kind of a big deal. I am excited, and thankful for the privileged circumstances that we’re in and that make it possible. And we call more than one place home.
So, boxes. You know all about moving your possessions from one place to another every few years, that’s how we do. Pick everything up, one thing at a time. Take a look at it. Remember (or forget) where it came from. Put it in a box. But which box? And there’s always more stuff to deal with than you think, and not enough boxes.
There’s a brand-new, senseless, and entirely avoidable tragedy on my mind this week. We know about it because in this information age we can’t not know, and like MF Doom said, the more we know, the more we know that we don’t know shit.
I feel like the box I usually put this kind of knowledge in is full, and that the capacity I have for considering or coping with this kind of event has to keep growing. I need more boxes. I can’t not notice. I can’t not care. Our fellow humans, thousands of miles away, and what can I do?
I know the answer. My answer, at least. Everything starts with how we treat people. How we connect with the people around us, friend and foe. How we choose our heroes. How well we protect each other. How well we care for each other. When we are healthy in our bodies and minds we are less likely to express ourselves in ways that hurt other people.
I wanted to loop this back in to how we choose what goes in the boxes and what we pass to others but you know all of this is difficult and so I’m going to leave it here. Until next time, my friends. Look after the ones around you.
Yours sincerely,
Paul