Brevity

One Indian sage described the human experience as a gasp of pain between birth and death.

Mr. Nobody

Where there are memories, there is a person. Where there are no memories, there is no person. Perhaps because most of life is unremembered, memories are described as precious and irreplaceable. We escape burning buildings clutching old photographs, artifactual evidence that we exist. There are numberless black and white images in circulation, floating around in flea markets and other places, even lying on the ground. We look at them, faded and curled, and wonder: Who are those people? According to every cultural convention, a person is a bundle of particulars, a medley of distinguishing characteristics which, if we are among the blessed, will be curated at some later date for an obituary. Now tell me, is this beginning to feel like a rabbit hole? What if we are not persons at all? What if we are nobody in particular?

Ignorance unlimited

Thanks to technology the limits of our ignorance have been vastly extended.

Socratic paradox

The ignorant man is ignorant of the fact that he’s ignorant. The wise man knows that he doesn’t know. And he’s comfortable with that.

Clamping tools

“ME!” she cried. “MINE!” he roared. These pronouns are pincers, the killing business of arthropods. Dig into their meaning. Understand precisely what they mean and how they dominate us. Be free of them.