Witchcraft and heresy

“You can’t get hung up on where you’d rather be that you forget to make the most of where you are.” Aurora

Sunday, 7 June 2020

Hello,

What a week. Coronavirus, racism and the longest lockdown on the planet. I was in Hout Bay with the author, Sarah Bullen and collected her latest piece of work, How To Write Your Book In 100 Days, yesterday. We sat on a bench on the pavement facing the beach. If I moved my foot a little, I could touch beach sand and could conceivably be arrested. Friends of mine can’t get repatriated because the government is allegedly refusing landing rights to foreign carriers. I believe that Sandton City was packed to the brim at month end, so was Fordsburg and the Oriental Plaza. So is everywhere … it’s all very confusing for me.

Goal Setting is witchcraft and heresy

You probably already know that I’m not a fan of goal setting, law of attraction and mullets. I wrote a piece of text to argue that the intention of goal setting is human production not human happiness. It’s worth a read to see how goal setting started and how it is used to squeeze productivity out of us. It follows the theme of destinations are where dreams go to die.

Guess the author

I promised to send you the results of the poll from last week. That was a bust. Two people responded to the poll off this email database. Don’t worry, I’m not wounded at all. My therapist only had to talk me off the ledge twice. I did put the poll out on social media and I got eight responses. So that was something. The response (if 10 is a big enough sample) was overwhelmingly Ernest Hemingway. That’s exactly what I was going for. Second place went to Charles Bukowski. If it was him, the cigar would have been stubbed out in the whiskey, there would be puke on the floor and a naked woman somewhere. Third place went to Winston Churchill. Ai tog, I didn’t immediately place him as an author. Maybe a guy who saved a small island … but not an author.

Would you murder someone for connection?

This is exactly what the character, Jim Preston tried to do to Aurora in the movie Passengers. I feel disconnected right now with the way things are going. I can understand what was going through Jim Preston’s mind. Here’s my take on it.

We probably need to talk about this

“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” — Angela Davis

The other day someone sent me the Anti-Racism Resource List. I don’t know what they were trying to say to me (I’m a veligte, for goodness sakes … maar miskien nie)? What is white privilege? What is systemic racism? What is white fragility? How do you speak to your children about racism? I’m going to have a look at the resource to interrogate my own biases. I’m nervous to go … will you come with me?

My best to you,

Jacques

Let me write your EPIC legacy story.

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