The virtual world does not adequately prepare our minds for conceiving of or apprehending the spiritual realm. To say that the imagination has long been our best guide to understanding the spiritual realm is not to render that realm any less real; indeed for those most practised in the art of daydreaming, that world is … More The virtual world and the spiritual realm.
Almost by chance, I picked up Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 to read the same day that I finished Bleak House by Charles Dickens. The choice was serendipitous, for reasons only obvious to the restless wanderings of a mind wearied of the hyped-up buzz of today’s post-literate society. (I am being coy, of course; one might … More What the reader discovers upon comparing Charles Dickens with Ray Bradbury
This is a true story. It happened yesterday (as I write). I boarded the Elizabeth Line train at its South-Eastern terminus, Abbey Wood, opting for the train that wasn’t rammed-and-about-to-leave, in favour of getting a seat. I plonked myself down opposite a man perhaps in his fifties, bearded, big glasses, a little rotund, wearing a … More A Tale of Two Travellers.
We allow technology to govern our consciousness every time we choose to pay attention to it, because whatever we pay attention to shapes our experience of consciousness, and has the power to direct our intentions, and therefore our actions. Therefore, when we allow our smartwatch to regularly tap us on the wrist to tell us … More What happens when we allow technology to govern our consciousness?
Well, first, it’s now broken. Secondly, it broke because I’d done the fool thing of attaching it magnetically to the side of the iPad – you know, the way it’s designed – but my 6-year-old son picking it up was enough to jolt the Pencil off the side of the iPad so that it fell … More The Apple Pencil: An Honest Review
J.R.R. Tolkien, writing to his son Christopher, commenting on how long and sprawling The Lord of the Rings was becoming, compared with The Hobbit: ‘It is a curse having the epic temperament in an overcrowded age devoted to snappy bits!’ And to think that he wrote this in 1944, not 2024… but perhaps the sons … More Tolkien and the curse of the epic temperament
Hot tip: Don’t use your phone, tablet or computer as a glanceable timepiece. Well, maybe your computer taskbar/menubar is allowable while you’re working. But don’t be getting your phone out of your pocket to ‘check the time’… you’ll never be knowing where the time went after you’re done ‘just checking’. ‘Okay, but couldn’t I try … More Dispatch from the Digital Detox: Use an analogue watch
The promise of digital technologies is the ultimate kind of ‘distributed cognition’ – the ability to use different digital environments in order to help our thinking be streamlined – focused on one thing or another: on writing a report, or planning a project, or communicating with co-workers or loved ones. The fact is, though, that … More The Digital Era: Distributed vs. Fragmented Cognition
Great writers show, don’t tell, and Conrad is one of the great writers. Take just the Author’s Note that prefaces The Rescue, in which he recounts coming back to finish the book after a 20 year pause: ‘The years passed and the pages grew in number, and the long reveries of which they were the … More Joseph Conrad exemplifying the rule ‘show don’t tell’
Some days I have to remind myself, ‘There’s always tomorrow.’ Those days when I’m cranky and sleepy and worn ragged and I just have to slow down and not take myself too seriously; I just have to make a list and do the essential things, enjoy the little things, chill out, give thanks, read a … More Tomorrow
Ben David Trigg 