The Philosopher Peasant

I noticed something about myself in a conversation last week that I did not love. My friend was telling me about something genuinely hard going on with her family, and while she was talking, I realized I wasn't actually listening anymore. I was waiting. Waiting for my turn. I had already, somewhere around sentence four, started composing my response, my own similar story, the thing I was going to say once she finished. She was still talking. I had already left. She probably h

So here's a dumb thing that happened to me. Well, not to me exactly, this is a "you" thing, a general human thing, but let's be honest, it happens to basically everyone, myself very much included. You have a bad day. Not a tragic day, just a grating one. Traffic, an annoying email, someone at work being weird with you for no clear reason. And by 8pm you're on your phone, and somehow you end up buying a candle. Or a shirt. Or one of those little kitchen gadgets that promises t

You are in the supermarket, and you have been here before. Not in the casual sense. Not in the way every supermarket feels like every other supermarket if you squint. You have been in this exact sequence of movements before. Same entrance, same slightly aggressive blast of cold air, same automatic doors opening like they recognize you personally and are mildly disappointed. You pick up a basket. It is not the first one. You always skip the first one. Something about it feels