/ Substack

I shared a Note yesterday about my lack of use of Substack.

I thought today I would be full of words to either explain my subdued approach or why it is I have not posted.

But I find that as I sit here looking at the screen, I am wondering about the many writers and people who use the platform, and what I can possibly say that would be useful, interesting, or worth sharing? And that is where things begin to get difficult.

My journey, my online journey if you like, has been replete with angst, exhortation, and an opinion-fest based on nothing more than what I have loosely described as my chagrin with the dominant narrative. That hasn’t got me very far. In fact, I am sure that nobody wants to hear my opinion on anything. After all, who am I to tell you how to live your lives or to shout the odds about anything? I am and will always remain a nobody, and I like it that way. I don’t want to be seen as a somebody. Somebody has to be something, and I think in this world we need to think of ourselves as being less of something, instead of more. But that goes against the grain of the marketplace. We are told — commanded if you like — that we’ve got to live up to our potential, but why? What is potential? Is it an inalienable right? Will we know when we’ve reached the promised land? And that is the problem for me. Having tried on a number of different suits over the years, I’ve never found one that fitted very well, and that is because I have never stopped running long enough to ask a more sensible question than “What’s next?” And what’s next is simply more of the same. It does not enable us to sit still long enough to look within. Mind you, I have done a lot of that— a lot of navel-gazing, a lot of “Who am I?” type enquiry. But ultimately, when you’re suffused or stuck within this world—a world that is replete with money, doing, and having—it is very difficult to escape that. In fact, I would say it is almost impossible. The only way to escape it is to leave it—not to leave it as in this mortal world—but to leave it all behind and pursue something very different. Very different being a more monastic existence, a more solemn existence, a quieter existence. And who in their right mind is going to want to do that whilst at the same time telling everybody about their experience? Well, actually, a lot of people seem to want to do that, but again, that existence becomes just another thing to acquire and then to market. I think what we all need to do is simply to disappear—to disappear and simply do our thing, and not be taken seriously in any way at all. And if that means being selfish and self-oriented, then so be it. We don’t all have to live in a world where community and social cohesion is the regnant way of being. Or at least that’s how I feel.

But in the end, I run out of words to try to explain what I am really trying to say, which is that Substack is simply a portal to a world of people who either want to read interesting material or presumably want to be told that there is another way to be in this world. And yes, that also includes to learn about the ‘news’—but the news right now is very depressing; it is all based on a loud-mouthed, gammon-faced narcissist, and you can apply that to not just one individual but a lot of individuals. And I’m not being derogatory when I say that, but I am speaking my truth. My truth which says I have seen people like this before, and it always ends the same way. But this is not a place for me to go on a rant about politics. Let’s just see where we get to, shall we? Let’s just see where we get to in the coming years, and that dear readers is probably where I will leave you for now.

Blessings,

Julian