Success Sucks

As I write, we are in the thick of awards season, and despite endless criticisms about awards shows, the length, the trite speeches, the pathetic hosts (well, except Ricky Gervais), people love the nominations excitement, the glamour, the thrill of guessing the winners. Although there are dozens of awards in the entertainment industry, the coveted Academy Award is regarded as pretty much la crème de la crème, something actors, writers, directors, designers and composers aspire to, a career pinnacle. One…

Read More Read More

As the axiom goes, a cluttered desk is the sign of a creative mind. Is this true? Or is this too general a statement? It depends on the desk, the mind, and the day. Let’s dissect this recipe.      Nothing great ever (or very rarely) comes out of chaos. You might cite the Big Bang as something that did erupt from pandemonium, but we’re talking a desk here, slightly more contained. Depending upon what it is that you use your desk…

Read More Read More

I highly recommend you read the “Success Sucks!” book before reading this post. It will have more meaning if you do it in that order. Nonetheless, since we are all born at some point and die, hopefully at another point, these “taphs” or gravestone inscriptions are here to give you a laugh, one good way of going out, or impart some sentimentality or wisdom. Long walks through graveyards always lift my spirits and reinvigorate my sense of purpose. Unfortunately, the…

Read More Read More

The is a super-practical post! Pilling. And, no, I don’t mean those nasty little nubbly things that accumulate on our favourite sweater. I mean, the ingestion of pills, be those vitamins, prescriptions or the headache remedy you need from reading my book and suffering a spoonful of reality. Most of us take some form of pills, even occasionally, if not daily. As we age, even though we were sure, in our younger years, that we would never being dropping four…

Read More Read More

Louise Erdrich’s book, “The Painted Drum” contains some genuine pearls of wisdom, including the quote below. She supports my “you’re deader than you think” approach to living life with gusto and purpose, because you just never know. Here is a passage I particularly like in its reality and wisdom: “Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to…

Read More Read More

Go ahead. You can’t make a soufflé sandwich until it’s flat enough. Time is something we are in a great big hairy rush to spend, and yet it’s a societal construct. Let’s say you’ve found yourself in a slight financial rut. Maybe it’s January and your credit cards are shopped out, or you had to take time off work to get through a bout of Covid. Either way, your bank balance needs a serious dose of spices, and you’re suitably…

Read More Read More