Writing tip from Steinbeck

Much more fire, much more often

What is coming? Much more fire, much more often, burning much more land. Over the last five decades, the wildfire season in the western United States has already grown by two and a half months; of the ten years with the most wildfire activity on record; nine have occurred since

Battering my head against it

Of course I cannot break through the wall by battering my head against it, but I am not going to be reconciled to it simply because it is a stone wall and I have not the strength. From Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

What is the life expectancy of a civilization?

The average lifespan of a civilization is 336 years (this according to Luke Kemp, a researcher based at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge).

Artists and poets, as well as madmen

Individuals who depart from the norms—heroes, sages, artists, and poets, as well as madman and criminals—look for different things in life than most others do. From Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Last morning in Copenhagen

I’d woken up early, and I took a long time getting ready to exist. I paced from one side of the room to the other, dreaming out loud incoherent and impossible things—deeds I’d forgotten to do, hopeless ambitions haphazardly realized, fluid and lively conversations which, were they to be, would

Words For The Meanwhile

a commonplace blog

Recommended

Much more fire, much more often

Battering my head against it

What is the life expectancy of a civilization?

Artists and poets, as well as madmen

Last morning in Copenhagen

by Jack Freeborne