I don't share this for the "LOLs", this being the now-deleted tweet of an unwell man.

I share this for the Great Big Cultural Sad of our discourse having been driven in recent years by people who never had the chops for anything more than "thought-leading" by playing into fear and hatred.

How do we come back from an era of "public intellectual" grifters? How do we recenter dialogue that encourages better critical thinking, knowledge exchange, and democratic practices?

And can we do it online?

#Workflow

Finishing finances for the month, I'm pleased that I'm still able to knock down debt again--and the aim is to keep it that way, despite yet again being thrown into financial precarity.

This is my first week with full control over my workflow (class cancellations aside), so I need to get ahead in newsletter posts, which will give me time for more writing/pitching articles and fiction instead.

How do we eat an elephant?

Well, we don't--but if we did, it would be one bite at a time. 👌

Time to check in on my sociopath pod and a few other reminders that the world runs a bit differently for people in finance. 🙃

(And if anyone here credulously uses the expression "How much foam is in our stock-market latte?", I hope you can take a good long look in the mirror and think about what you've become.)

Apparently it's flat white appreciation day on Google? #Coffee

I've already consumed all my liquids for the next 12 hours, but have at it, loves!

Morning, CoSo. 🕊️

Just a wee one to start off your week. Today's Monday Media Review reflects on Wim Wenders' Perfect Days (2023), easily the best movie about a man who cleans toilets that you'll ever see.

It's a lovely piece, but don't mistake the message in it: it's not that inner peace comes from seeking a "simpler" life; it's that a simple life is easier to achieve in certain circumstances than others.

How do we create a world where more of us can live this well?

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/on-perfect-days-and-who-gets-to-have

Night, CoSo.

Take good care of your hearts this week.

(And hydrate!)

I should note that I'm tired in part because I gave the all-day dry-fasting a try, to get a sense of what 1/4 of us do every year.

Man, that is a tough business!

I've done 17- and 19-day water fasts, but going without water for even a brief period definitely wears on a body.

I'm going to keep giving it a try this year, to get a sense of how it affects a person physically and mentally, but I have to say, from the trial run, that I'd honestly rather be fully water-fasting for the 30 instead. 😬

(Sorry for the repost, folks: the first version didn't make a blooming bit of sense, beyond the lulling rhetoric of its construction. This one is clearer.)

#Humanism

1/4 of all human beings are Muslim.

Anyone of age, not pregnant, and not sick will now be partaking in a month of fasting until April 8: no water, no food, until sundown.

In Canada I used to see folks working at restaurants during Ramadan: happy to feed others while honouring their faith with abstinence.

All the Abrahamic religions have cruelty in them. Each book, its own atrocities.

It is very easy to forget our shared humanity.

But not impossible to strive, instead, to be kind.

Me: Yay! All finished this first week's workflow.
Also Me: You gonna take a break now? Maybe read something for fun? Eat something? Walk?
Me: ...I was thinking of finishing tomorrow's newsletter first.
AM: