The good life

Ecological sustainability, self-sufficiency, community building, everyday wisdom

Going to the Theatre
In our time of digital entertainment and overwhelming visual stimulation, where toddlers are growing up with screens, a live performance on stage attains the quality of magic. If only, I find myself thinking, the stories presented on stage are not about war, horror, provocation, abuse, violence, cynicism, shock, and lasciviousness. And that is why I ...
infinite responsibility
To block the thought of our finite existence and the fear of death, we've invented the idea of infinite growth and progress, and materialized it as the celebration of greed (amassing wealth as a purpose in itself). What if we take a step back and pretend we have infinite responsibility for the planet, for future ...
Missing Miru
[series-miru] For a variety of reasons that I had instantly forgotten when looking at a smiling Miru, I had decided to travel. Looking for new clients, exploring new countries, visiting friends, making use of stopovers on a journey to Europe - all are equally valid and ridiculous reasons to miss the baby for a few ...
A little experiment
[series-miru]Miru is about 125 days old, and still the gorgeously cute and quiet baby she has always been. Yesterday, I used her in a little scientific experiment, the ethical justification of which derives from the fact that there was no need for an artificial reward, nor was there the need of inflicting anything remotely uncomfortable ...
FAME
Because a writer is supposed to desire the award. He would be betraying everything if he plays indifference. The award is the highest attainable goal, the apex of any artist and it's blasphemy not to want it with all our might. The award is the appraisal of the Big Other, the ultimate crown on our ...
Adrift
For a moment, drifting in that beautiful illusion that we can articulate a world we have in common. For a moment, feeling reality reverberate in our ecstatic minds, feeling the gentle pulses of the blood vessels that support our brains. We experience all the truths we have established, we are sure that our brains are ...
Permaculture (2 little ideas)
We hope to buy our own small piece of land, so we can start permaculture in modest proportions. We want to experiment with herb spirals, greenhouses, keyhole beds, guilds of crops, sheet mulching, low-till, swales, gravity irrigation, drip irrigation, natural pest control, reuse of greywater, rainwater catchment, and so on. I've been studying the system ...
Mirror
[series-miru] Still short of the 100-days milestone, a big event here in Korea, we've seen Miru developing some skills well before their due date. She can lift up her head entirely, she can put her hands together, she grasps things, she smiles spontaneously - and is fascinated by her own image in the mirror. She ...
What if our child becomes…?
[series-miru] Our daughter is 66 days old now and most of her actions are reflexes of the hunger she feels, the discomfort her skin communicates to her, the sounds she hears and the blotches of color we assume she sees. She smiles a lot, and we've been tempted to attribute that to her character, but ...