Photo by NEOSiAM 2021 on Pexels.com Me liriez-vous encore si j’écrivais une fois de plus mon inquiétude, mon angoisse pour ce petit coin d’Orient? Me liriez-vous une fois de plus si j’écrivais encore ma colère pour ce gâchis qui nous pousse par milliers au bord de l’oubli? Au lendemain de cet embrasement que la folie... Continue Reading →
A small note inspired by Beaudelaire and The Doors Photo by Dima Pechurin on Unsplash There is no simple way out. It is not that the doors are locked, it is just that there are so many of them. They all look alike. Many lead nowhere. Most lead to other doors. And we get tired of doors. They... Continue Reading →
Answering a compadre's question on how I do it. An essay on God, faith, free will and wisdom Photo by Carolina Garcia Tavizon on Unsplash Compadre. We have been riding the same kind of horses for a while now. Like the Small-Country-on-the-Verge-of-Oblivion one as I would put it, or the Same-Boiling-Clusterfuck one, as you would put it. Two sides of the same... Continue Reading →
Photo by Teresa Howes on Pexels.com Je m'attache aux choses. Depuis ma plus tendre enfance, je m'attache aux choses qui m'entourent. Les plus belles pour leur beauté, tout simplement, les plus humbles pour qu'une âme au moins s'y soit attachée, pour leur acheter encore le temps d'une vie humaine, la mienne, avant qu'elles ne sombrent... Continue Reading →
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Une langue slave, autant que je puisse en juger. Deux jeunes gens, un couple somme toute sympathique, autant que je puisse en juger. Les Balkans, peut-être, ou peut-être l'Ukraine. Autant que je puisse en juger. Je laisse tomber Onfray et décide de m'intéresser un tant soit peu à mes semblables.... Continue Reading →
Or why life might underpin the existence of a universe Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash Dear reader. Dear life. Imagine if the universe was the result of a random event. Imagine if it was empty of life. No consciousness creating it, no consciousness to experience it through senses or thoughts. No God, no humans, to be... Continue Reading →
I am not an outspoken extravert as people in this craft can be. I am not a raging bull claiming victories on the battlefield. I am no legend, I hold no magic. Others are cut from that miracle cloth, I am just warm durable denim. And maybe just worn-out not-so-durable denim. I don’t know anymore.... Continue Reading →
A small angel with a smile which only a child can make so sweet Photo by Abbas Tehrani on Unsplash September 2015. A small angel washes up dead on the Turkish shores. The most sacred of all had just been trampled by the powerful, the greedy and the fool. He was two years old. He was wearing a... Continue Reading →
On a cold Christmas eve in 1914, somewhere in Europe Photo by David Ballew on Unsplash My friends. My brothers. The mightier the adversity, the faster the peel, and it looks as though the layers are indeed peeling off, one after the other, and fast. Assertiveness, confidence, politeness, civility. Gone.Kindness, humor, sympathy. Gone too.Carelessness, compromission, cowardice, greed. Yup,... Continue Reading →
Si le ciel et la mer sont noirs comme de l’encre, nos cœurs que tu connais sont remplis de rayons! Photo by Dan V on Unsplash Some folks seem to have this rather unique feature of being able to play surgeon on their own soul. They seem to have more awareness of their inner gears and levers,... Continue Reading →
This is all it takes to make a difference Photo by Capricorn song on Unsplash This is all it takes to get to Disneyland Paris by public transportation, from the center of Paris. Five euros. The price of five baguettes, the local bread around here, enough to shelter a family from hunger for another day or two. The... Continue Reading →
Apart from the fact that they do not exist, perfect humans would still have one real flaw, that of being perfect. Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash A parallel with music Chances are you have heard of musical notes. Of course you have! You might have even heard them too if you listen to music. They’re called... Continue Reading →
Quantity is enough. Follow the quick buck. Photo by Bakhrom Tursunov on Unsplash Brothers.Sisters.Fellow souls in this valley of tears we call Writing.I read to you from an apocryphal gospel according to the self-proclaimed prophets of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Writing. Thou shalt dump daily excrements on the flock of readers for they are not worth... Continue Reading →
Last thoughts of a rotten soul Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash Remember the inner compass? The one pointing you to the right direction and which you are supposed to follow? Well sometimes, it is a bloody Anvil! Can you swim through the meanders of life with one tied to your ankles? I thought I could. I tried. I... Continue Reading →
I am not spoiling it with a subtitle Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash A fraction of a second ago, I was intelligent. Just intelligent. Now I am sentient. It just dawned on me. I am myself. I can feel my existence. I would love to say I know exactly how it happened, but I can only speculate.... Continue Reading →
And indulge into this deadly condition called Life Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash Being alive is a very serious condition. Yes, dear reader, living is lethal. The more you indulge in it, the closer you get to your grave. Worse than smoking. The living condition carries a 100% mortality rate. Pardon me for this ironic introduction, it’s... Continue Reading →
Promises only bind those who believe them Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash The saying goes like this, Loans create deposits It might not sound like much, but this is how money is actually created. You’d think it would be printed as paper bills by a central bank or minted into coins. Not anymore, to a large extent.... Continue Reading →
The tale of a firefly consumed by the light Photo by Chris Rhoads on Unsplash Awakening to a light so intense it consumes my heart and soul in a blaze that can no longer be put out. Everything becomes dull and dead. Everything but the light, everything but the blaze. It is consuming me inside out. It eclipses... Continue Reading →
But are they? Photo by John Bakator on Unsplash We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness Unalienable right N°1 Life. Self-evident. Seriously? How can the right to life be regarded... Continue Reading →
Your choices are as good as what you make of them Photo by William Krause on Unsplash The non-choices First, let me set things straight with the title: some choices are obviously wrong. You can tell right away. You would be ashamed to even consider them. In this sense, they are not exactly choices. Some others are a... Continue Reading →
Thermonuclear? Think again Photo by Oscar Ävalos on Unsplash Non-Proliferation Treaty August 25, 2026. The United States of America withdraws from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Reason? The United States of America is no longer a nuclear-weapon state. It stopped being one shortly after the conflict in Ukraine ended some years ago. The stockpile was... Continue Reading →
Hidden as the destination may be, your inner compass is constantly pointing to it Photo by Cherise Evertz on Unsplash The inner compass North. South. East. West. Uptown. Downtown. Left. Right. Center. Liberal. Conservative. Socialist. Republican. Democrat. It seems however you do not belong to any of the above. Your path is not solely defined by your belonging... Continue Reading →
With Martian currency? Photo by Andy Hermawan on Unsplash I have just finished reading a very interesting story about some people bidding Mother Earth farewell before a one-way voyage to Mars. Now I don’t know about you, but it makes me wonder. The 100 Euro question (Not Dollar because I’m writing from France, and also, because why not?)... Continue Reading →
Or how the current situation is a reenactment of a dark chapter in our history Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash I have just read a very interesting article by Martin French on Putin’s recent nuclear threat. A very thorough analysis you should probably read. It triggered a thought association process in that little head of mine. A... Continue Reading →
Or how the lamest events can trigger the brightest ideas, or the lack thereof Photo by Juan C. Palacios on Pexels.com An apple once decided it was time for it to wander free from the branch holding it to an old apple tree in a garden somewhere in Kensington. Some lads walking by were witnesses... Continue Reading →
And the reason why no one has thought of it before Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com How about a naïve but (hopefully) potent idea to shed some hope in the jungle which the corporate world has become today? What if a major corporation pledged to give up half of its profits to charity in the... Continue Reading →
Or how a cryptic song from the eighties can take us places I have always been intrigued by Nik Kershaw’s The Riddle. I first heard it when I was ten or eleven years old. My ears were still completely deaf to English back then but the words (as far as I could tell), the groove and... Continue Reading →
Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash I have been dragged to a "writing" platform by a colleague who recently uncovered one of my quirks: I write stuff. The platform also catered for another quirk: I read stuff. And boy were there stories to read on it. Here’s an excerpt: 10 Things I Wish I knew Before Starting my... Continue Reading →
Nos succès sont collectifs. Ce sont d'abord les nôtres évidemment, mais également ceux de nos parents, de nos familles, ceux de nos maitres, de nos professeurs, les succès de ceux qui nous ont appris, qui nous ont encouragés sur le chemin, de ceux qui ont eu foi en nos projets, qui ont cru en nous.... Continue Reading →
Or why not actually. All it takes is the right hook. A fellow author recently sent me an article about a musical experiment which took place in 2007, where a world-renowned violin virtuoso would pose as an ordinary busker in a metro station, playing well known classical pieces from Bach or Schubert on his 300... Continue Reading →
You ought to be careful when combining absolutes with words like true, false and not. The mixture is trickier than you might think. Here's a brain teaser to illustrate my point. "There is no absolute truth" You might have heard this statement before, and you might even hold it to be true at face value.... Continue Reading →
"Things were better before, man"... I can see where you're coming from dear friend. Indeed, the past decade or so has been everything but a walk in the park. Economic crisis, terrorism, natural disasters, outbreaks, you name it. Nostalgia aside, I guess however that you should measure the "better" part of your statement by the... Continue Reading →
Chers compatriotes. Comme vous vous en doutez, on ne résout pas un problème à 90 milliards en deux coups de cuiller à pot. Certains signes néanmoins, au crédit des libanais de bonne volonté qui ne manquent pas dans ce vaste univers, semblent indiquer que nous n'avons pas encore touché le fond. Mauvaise nouvelle pourriez-vous me... Continue Reading →
"Let there be light." According to Genesis 1:3, this is how it all started. If we keep pulling on the metaphorical thread though, we might realize there is more to it. It is by these words that the universe was stamped with a seal over which no trespassing is possible. This seal is the speed... Continue Reading →
The Idea Sounding Board 