Hello again
Some free writing for the feed.
Hello, I need to write again. It has been a long time— been doing a lot of other things that aren’t writing. Things that need to be done, both for their own sake and for the sake of having something to write about. It hurts not to write. Like being a kid with a broken leg watching your classmates out at recess. I’ve never broken a limb actually. And I didn’t really get much of recess in school, so maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about. What I mean to say is that I feel like I’m missing out. Maybe I should have just said that.
Things are bleak but I think I can beat that. I can always imagine a worse situation but that doesn’t feel like a special or rare skill. Seems as though everyone is living two days ahead in a worse, dying future. The parents in my life look at their young children with a certain amount of grief. My students grow quieter.
In a recent trip to Florida I noticed something about the cruel idiots that like what fills the news right now. They’re satiated— As close to happy as their circumstances will allow which is something between I wish my kids would call me and Gas could still be cheaper. All this cruelty and it barely moves the needle on these people.
There’s a lot to do. Lists overflow and stagnate under the weight of just one more TikTok. That won’t last long. You can feel the algorithms shifting under your fingertips. From the ruthless exactitude of Bytedance’s secret sauce to the oafishness of whatever the Ellisons are cooking up for us. I feel uncomfortable saying it but my phone used to bring me so much joy. I loved looking at my friends through it. Now its a sour box of bad news and cheap jokes. Probably for the best.
For six years I wrote nearly every week on a website called Cyborgology. We predicted a lot, got a few things really wrong too. It is too much to say everyone is living in the school of thought we created there but I still see ideas floating around in high places that started on that Wordpress site. One day I’ll write all that down. That’ll be a good piece of writing. Like winning at kickball while your crush watches.
That’s all my schedule will allow for right now. Here’s some items to consider:
