Monday
Is the world up or down? War, climate, and the stunning concentration of power, wealth, stupidity, and wasted influence that flows to a few spots on the globe but also through each of us and our phones suggest more down than up, or that things are headed that way.
But for the first time, the horizon is in view for all of us and no tribal fix or partial measure will suffice. The lesson of the last few decades is that we are all wired the same way, can all be hacked. If we change the conversations around money and energy and life to ones that stick and transmit, maybe they will spread and saves us. How about a worldwide political party based solely on what builds the middle class? And an international campaign on why going green is the most selfish thing you can do? Even a street-by-street demonstration of why real space trumps hyper-space?
Tuesday
Imported as if from February, yesterday in Amsterdam came with steady rain and dark gray. The sun is precious here and the light of light and warm of warmth always remind you that life is beautiful and is all we have.
Wednesday
It took me forty-five minutes to cancel an account with an AI app I never used but which stuck itself onto half of everything I was trying to do. Barely born, the pernicious growth of this technology will be all we talk about soon, what we run from soon after that.
Thursday
School is where people of different generations come together to look after each other and where, as much as anywhere, we should remember what Adam Phillips says: “If the best thing we do is look after each other, then the worst thing we do is pretend to look after each other when in fact we are doing something else.” (I say this because I am about to lead a workshop for some teachers. I had suggested the topic “Learning and Fun” but was told the school head was skeptical about the word “fun.” )
Friday
I’ve spent each day this week not writing about guns and Texas. I thought I would be satirical and write about the lovely reliability of guns or philosophical and write about how they undo all subtlety or journalistic and consider the meaning of a mass killer donning the same pins and symbols as one of America’s chief political parties. But the story of this week’s mass murder is already old news, forgotten already, already irrelevant. It is off my to-do list. I can’t keep up. Tragedy becomes routine, the practice of not caring threads into the system.
Saturday
I will go to Dublin today for a week to see Mr. Dash. The most carbon-friendly way to travel from Amsterdam is ten times as expensive as flying.
Sunday
The goal for next week will be to not cheat like this again and write something every day for this space, though I am also in the process of starting a new newsletter about loneliness. What do you think of the title: Don’t Be Lonely?
(Tomorrow: House of The Rising Floors)
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This newsletter follows a funny rhythm as follows
Monday: UDOIT (The Up and Down of It)
Tuesday: Amsterdam-ia
Wednesday: At The Bottom of The Internet (@botnet)
Thursday: Notes On Education
Friday: Today, or Some Day Like It
Saturday: Muntrem
Sunday: The Pornographic Imagination