Category: Monday Musings
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Day 469 of 1000: Men in My Dreams
I dreamt of being told what to do by a male manager, and of my car being driven up to ski for me by another man. Why?
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Day 462 of 1000: Cultivating Self-Loathing to Drive Goal Completion
Author and writing teacher Elizabeth McCracken suggests that a little bit of self-hatred can help drive you towards goal completion. I’m gonna try it!
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Day 448 of 1000: Settling Down into the Muck of My Mind
Allan Ginsberg recommends writing secretly so you can be free to say anything you want. On painting and writing in private.
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Day 434 of 1000: Achievement Minimalism
Seeking contentment with the life I have rather than continuing to pursue more social contacts, more money, more external validation.
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Day 406 of 1000: Art and Creative Differentiation
Nietzsche thought that a great person would creatively differentiate their existence rather than living with the herd. Deleuze applied this idea to art.
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Day 399 of 1000: Shame into Strength
The Scarlet Letter features a heroine who turns her shame into strength.
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Day 392 of 1000: Fantasy vs Imagination in Crafting a Life
Fantasy is a creation of the inward-turned ego; imagination connects you with the world of reality.
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Day 385 of 1000: Getting in the Flow
The word “temperance” derives from the Latin verb “temperare” which means “to mix in proper proportions.” Finding the right mix for my life.
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Day 371 of 1000: Emotionally-Driven Transformation after Divorce
Kym Maclaren’s distinction between emotional clichés and authentic passions, and how it helps me make sense of my transformation after divorce.
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Day 343 of 1000: Self as a Verb | Selfing and Unselfing
Ideas from three dharma talks about selfing and unselfing from Ines Freedman and Gil Fronsdal. The freedom unselfing brings.
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Day 329 of 1000: Optimistic, Pessimistic, or a Third Way?
Is Nietzsche’s idea of eternal return optimistic or pessimistic? Perhaps it is neither.
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Day 315 of 1000: How Culture Distorts Reality
Culture obscures reality so that we can’t see it accurately. Ideas from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
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Day 301 of 1000: Hope and the Other
Imagining resolutions to our current fourth turning crisis. Calling on hope, faith, and love.
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Day 273 of 1000: The Can-Do Society and Depression
Considering philosopher Byung-Chul Han’s diagnosis of the cause of depression and other mental illnesses, from The Burnout Society.
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Day 253 of 1000: The Neoliberal Creative Dispositif
Byung-Chul Han’s neoliberal creative dispositif in which acts of creativity respond to the achievement society’s demands.
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Day 218 of 1000: The emptiness of success
Inspired by the Two of Wands, musings on goal setting, achievement, and dissatisfaction. With an appearance by Schopenhauer.
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Day 212 of 1000: Writing a daybook
I’m writing a daybook about midlife reinvention, sharing the reckless philosophy of my alter ego Annie Miraway.
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Day 205 of 1000: Artificial intelligence opportunities in 2026
Thinking about what I might do with artificial intelligence in 2026: build a Tarot reader, a developmental book editor, or a “next right thing” daily planning tool.
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Day 198 of 1000: Writing for Artificial intelligences
Thinking about how I might turn my writing upside down and write for artificial intelligence, as a way of writing for people.
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Day 184 of 1000: Rich in emotions
Emodiversity, the breadth and abundance of emotions an individual experiences, is associated with wellness. The Ten of Cups and emodiversity.
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Day 163 of 1000: Kierkegaard and me
Lessons for me from Kierkegaard’s short and productive life. Creating difficulty for one’s self. Writing from different perspectives. Having only a short time left.
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Day 149 of 1000: When book writing goes slowly
I’ve been writing my memoir for over ten years and I’m now turning it into nonfiction. How to accept when writing a book goes very slowly.
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Day 95 of 1000: A declaration of war on Chicago
Trump all but declared war on an American city over the weekend, sharing a graphic showing Chicago on fire and saying “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.”