“Manichaean” may be the most precisely useful word that no one is using anymore. It is useful, because it describes so many of us, perfectly. Seems rather likely to me that it has fallen into disuse, for that same reason. We’d much
Latest
I am a man of peace for the same basic reason that many come to this position – because I have, thanks to the circumstances of my life, come to understand hate. As a child, I was forced to become an adult,
One of my favourite ideas from Buckminster Fuller is that designing basic improvements to the way people live (especially in terms of the ratio of quality of life versus efficient use of resources) is a much easier a way to gradually approach
More than once, I have considered writing some version of “All I ever needed to know about Life…” (or politics, or philosophy, or even the revolution) “…I learned in retail.” Amazingly, we continue to act as if our “customer is always right”
I’m pretty sure it was Rumi who said, “I am forever the slave of that student who, after gaining new knowledge, will not then turn and say – that’s enough,” but this is a feeling that all true teachers understand (and the
It is nowadays, famously impossible to have a political discussion. There are several reasons for this – but the simplest one is that we have become a democratically-defective populace. Not only are we too angry and irrational now to compromise to take
Here are a few political heavyweights from that fine recent exhibition of American press images of Canada, shown at the Ryerson image centre. Looking at a whole bunch of Canadian prime ministers from the cold-war era, all grouped together on one wall,
Caught ‘The Art of Banksy’ show with Nada the other day, and for anyone who is interested in modern art, it is very much worth seeing. Banksy is precisely in that most curious spot where pop-culture, politics and the art world meet.
Here’s one of a cluster of five poems that came to me all at once as a gift, a few days after finishing Ladinsky’s translation of “The Gift” by Hafiz (superb). It’s another one of those very small poems with a good
I’ve talked about Liberty village a few times – industrial lands out in the west end of downtown Toronto, now being turned into a diverse integrated neighbourhood. But this is not the only massive project to increase housing options in the city,
Nada and I met a fantastic photographer on our recent East End expedition. The work displayed in his shop was admirable, prices reasonable (yay, now we know where to get great prints made) – naturally, acting in my official capacity as captain
I’ve mentioned the value of walking a few times – not just for our physical health, but also for our mental and emotional well-being. The greatest gift of the modern world – our ability to construct gigantic complex structures out of nothing
I have a feeling that some of my Australian friends will be able to relate to this curiosity – and my European pals may well chuckle. America is famously founded upon the repudiation of a colonial relationship. But one of the funny
The day after a very painful election result it’s tempting to rant, but rather than dropping multiple tons of science from altitude (as is my usual habit), I think perhaps lowering some very gently and under control is a better idea –
A friendly Zoroastrian restauranteur who ran the place I used to go for lunch every day once told me, “You know, Paul, a lot of my customers read – but you actually make love to your books!” He had me pegged, no
Last time, I posted about trying to understand more about my grandmother, the second war, and drawing. Here’s some more about all of that – and a bit of meta-thinking about life itself, while I’m at it. I had an odd
Many years ago, I had a period of illness during which I wasn’t able to do any drawing or writing at all, and then came out of it with two especially clear strong drives – one was to take my lifelong curiosity
Caught a curious assortment of saplings, cut lumber, and many stages between those extremes the other day, which struck me as oddly suggestive of a useful meditation on humility and self awareness. It can be hard to talk about psychological realities nowadays,
Massey Hall fills up (photo credit: Nada Nesin) They are closing my very favourite room in the entire city of Toronto in July for a massive multi-year renovation project, and if they mess this one up, I fear they may just break
About a hundred years later (top photo) Here’s a poem I wrote a couple of nights ago, that might appeal to my more environmentally and historically interested friends. I’ve seen more and more discussion of late about the question of whether we
Medicine gets a bad rap nowadays – thanks to a whole constellation of social changes, well outside it’s scope. The strangest of these is probably the way we have gone from a society with too much respect for arbitrary authority, to one
Your bookshelf is lonely (top photo) Night Song for Cigar-Box Banjo is a new collection of twenty-first century poetry, informed in spirit by compassion, in mind by a wide range of history, science, and psychology – and in form, by centuries of
I know I may seem overly provocative (or perhaps just foolhardy) for going after both left and right, and also recommending their shared virtues, ahead of the customary vitriol. I am not one of those cynics who thinks there is no difference
Music on the march (top photo) This is an age of pettiness, and I know I’m not the only one heartsick about it. I’m still trying to find a nice rhythm with which to bring you some fine honest (non-delusional) optimism and
One of the best things about an excruciatingly-long winter is that, eventually, it ends! (Definitely one of those feels-so-good-when-it-stops, phenomena). Curiously, I ran across all sorts of signs today, that it wasn’t just me feeling like I had a month of missed
“The beauty of everything will certainly kill me” (top photo) All paintings and photos in this piece – Courtesy of Tristram Pinney I have met a lot of interesting and beautiful people through Facebook, and as a long-time skeptic, I’m still regularly