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It is never personal, you're not the protagonist

It's so easy to become offended. It actually comes pretty natural. Someone says something.  You feel it's directed at you Strong reaction follows No need to react, it's got nothing to do with you as a person Imagine some remarks about academic work versus manual one, a bit dismissive about the latter. You don't have a degree and never wanted one. You know very well it takes years of experience and training to do what you're doing. Talent is involved too, as some people do have "two left hands".  You still feel you should add something to the conversation, but not sure if it is going to be well-received. No need to enlighten the other party right now Most people think in terms of opposites. If it's not this, it's that and it can't be anything else. Certainty of one's convictions is also a form of self-reassurance that everything is stable in one's world. Other points of view cannot be allowed because they are disruptive. Cognitive disrup

Bridge of expectations

It happens again and again. We call a friend or a relative. We are in neutral mode and do not anticipate a wave of bad mood swirling its way towards us. In the past we engaged and ended up heavily bruised. Now we think we know better and breathe in before we try to move on the conversation. It doesn't work. We bail out, cowardly. The only source of relief is found after scurrying towards some Stoic quotes.   Epitectus has an answer for the pressing question: who or what is pulling my strings? Anything that we set out our heart on or want to avoid has the controls of our inner peace. Bit pathetic, really. Expectations are our masters.   If every encounter involves as much mental preparation as going into a war zone, no wonder some prefer infrequent human contact and even give it up completely. Stoics advise against isolation though. Resilience needs scars and battles won, so that it is a badge of honour rather than a genetic gift. No wonder human interact

Images and words

I have recently discovered a Reddit corner that presents would-be writers, as well as established ones, presumably, with a 'wordy bait', a paragraph to fire up their imagination and get them down to writing. Having lived most of my life among words and through words, I thought I should do it too. Then I changed my mind. We no longer live in the traditional story-telling set-up. The world comes to us (and at us) mostly through the eyes, although ears are still important. The art of podcasting is now being taught, in exchange for a fee, and audio books are a good companion during hours of chores or lonely driving. Both audiobooks and podcasts are demanding mistresses, they require exclusivity and no competing sources of interest, like other noises or images. Sharing headphones is such a brief teenage act. Anyone above the age of 16 would not be seen dead pushing an earbud that carries someone else's genetic traces... and earwax. An image, on the other hand, is ins

The Dilettante's Amnesia

I can't believe so much time has passed since the last post. Is it laziness, lack of interest, an all-encompassing fear of failure? I think it's just a manifestation of the low-energy syndrome that permeates certain stages of life, the attraction of futility, giving in to an Oblomovian attitude that makes an otherwise strong character liquefy in bed instead of chasing outdoor dreams.

Twiblog

I have eventually linked up my so-called blog and my twitter persona. Two lazy homunculi (or mulieres... God, so long since my Latin class) will try and goad each other in a lingua incognita...well, not quite, but it's still a challenge. I may even get some tweets from fellow writers/aspiring writers.

Disappointment

So here I am, posting a most innocuous question on Twitter, trying to find fellow journeymen(women) on the way to writing in English despite not having it as the first language. I don't get any reaction, any tweet back, nothing at all. Quite disappointing...

Blogs and storms

Investigating the "next blog" feature and riding, if I may put it this way, into various storms. Quite a few people seem fond of recording their experiences of tornadoes, twisters and turbulence, enough to remember feeling a bit anxious while driving up a rocky road and leaving behind the Grand Canyon.  A dark mantle of clouds and intermittent lightning was trying to catch up with our car. I don't think its intentions were purely peaceful. But who knows what we may have missed...