Articles life, work, and the pursuit of happiness
I’ve been publishing Sunday Letters in one form or another since 2015. It is a conversation with myself, an exploration into the human condition amidst an alienating and destructive capitalist system of living. Subscribe and join in the conversation.
Welcome to the return of Sunday Letters, the weekly newsletter on life, work, and the pursuit of happiness. This week, I'm reaching back into the archive and a short piece I wrote several years ago after reading The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. For today's issue, I have taken a few hours to run an edit over things and add additional thoughts. I'll do this for the next few weeks and months in an …
Read More... about Annie Dillard on Time, Structure, Coffee, & Learning A Trade
This content was published first in The Sunday Letters Journal: https://sundayletters.larrygmaguire.com/p/albert-einstein-on-the-need-for-a by Larry G. Maguire on Sun, 11 Jun 2023 08:48:59 GMTI am a socialist in my base orientation, in my philosophy for life and work. I have always been this way, even before I knew what Socialism was. I am a socialist in the sense that I am for people first, …
Read More... about Albert Einstein on The Need For A Socialist Economy
Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc. I remember sitting in the classroom on what may have been my first day, but I can't be sure. It was Miss Tobin's class, and I must have been only five years old. The tables were flecked grey, like lino floor covering. When pushed together, they'd make a hexagon for us to sit around in our miniature red plastic chairs. The …
Concisely as possible, this is the most significant contributing factor to humanity's problems as far as I see it.We forgo our right to self-direction and determination and subjugate ourselves to the desires and whims of a few dominant others. These others are almost always men, and they are psychopathic. They are juvenile, narcissistic, and lack empathy or concern for people and the planet. Their …
Intelligence, whatever way we wish to discuss it, is a highly-regarded faculty. According to Etymology Online, we derive the word from the Latin intelligentia, “understanding, knowledge, power of discerning; art, skill, taste”. It has its origins in the Proto-Indo-European root leg, meaning “to collect” or “gather”. And so it seems, to be intelligent is to possess the capacity to gather, …
Read More... about Intelligence: You Either Have It, Or You Don’t
Sometimes it feels like I am cursed with a brain. Would it be better to regress to the level of an ant? Would that even be a regression? Do I have a choice in the matter? Some people choose drugs, some choose betting, sex or shopping. Some people indulge in anti-social behaviour to escape their own minds. It doesn't matter what medication or distraction we choose; it's all temporary.I teach …
