Why subscribe?

I’m not sure how you found me but deep bows and blessings for arriving at my Substack page.

Trying to describe “me” is an almost impossible task. Oh, sure, I’ve done a bushel of jobs — some more interesting than others — but they’re merely an extension of the cultural norm that exhorts us to live up to our potential. If that sounds tendentious, well, I’m sorry, but the truth is — my truth — we’re here for such a limited period of time and so few people, or at least the ones I know, are willing to stop the breathless pursuit of more to ask a more profound question.

Like what?

Erm, that’s a good question.

Perhaps I can put it like this:

“Where do we come from? Where do we go? Is this (i.e. life) the whole shooting match or is there something else?”

That’s not code for some religious theme. No. That’s standing on our own two feet and asking a more interesting set of questions than those that normally order our days, chief them among being:

What’s next?

In the mix apropos of the apparent “me” is a grown-up conversation about death, grief and loss. I realise that those words carry a degree of word voodoo but they’re interwoven with our shyness in talking about the existential crisis that looms larger by the day aided and abetted by the corporation that seems hellbent on taking a wrecking ball to Gaia. That isn’t universal but it’s the dominant theme, sadly.

Originally, I signed up to Substack so that I could send out a weekly newsletter but it’s much more likely these days that I’ll end up writing an irregular short-form essay, or I’ll post an audio recording or read a piece of poetry. In short, the firehose isn’t one-dimensional.

I describe myself as a spiritual activist by dint of sharing a more refined message than the usual “wake up” paraphernalia that appears common in the metaphysical and/or ontological space. I’m not sure if that’s apt to describe 57 years of living with the apparent “me” but it will do for now.

Someone once called me a good bloke. Perhaps that’s more apt but right now, and for quite some time, I’ve been writing about true Self and investigating whether life’s aims reflect life’s games. Too often, or at least it’s my experience, we end up playing a series of games that elide any sense of our actual experience of life absent our history and labels.

I’ve also written a lot on the unformed happening of this moment (a total mystery) and spoken often in my morning reflections on Soundcloud about how easily we fall under the dominant cultural narrative. I’m not out to shatter illusions — yours on anyone else’s — but merely to invite you to consider your actual experience of this thing we call life — not our life but life.

My style, such as it is, is very light on exhortation but heavy on asking a more beautiful question; or to question the question that’s been running your life up to this point.

If you do sign up to receive my musings then every new post or podcast will come directly to your inbox.

Join a community of people who share your interest in dismantling the fantasy.

I also write about my locus in Devon, England where I spend a lot of time walking around the lanes. I make no apology for sharing my pictures too and the odd audio reflection.

Subscribing

You’ll see an option here to become a paid subscriber at £5 a month or £50 a year. The paid subscription comes with zero additional benefits. It is just for those who want to give extra encouragement and support me, my family and my work. Paid subscriber or free, you have equal access to all content. If you want to pay less or more than the (rather arbitrary) £5/mo, you can go to the Elsewhere page on my website where you’ll find links to Ko-fi and Buy Me A Coffee.

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