Yeah, but are you short-sighted? Cause I am.
But it doesn’t compare. And I’ve just been given the go ahead to wean off my anti-depressants.
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(I got the go ahead early last year to quit, it was … Err… Weird, but ssri’s never worked for me)
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I’m on a rather low dose, so I assume weaning off won’t be too dramatic.
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Why am I still here? (Weaning, haven’t you people heard of weaning?)
Oh well,
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Holy hell, I jumped in here without looking at the previous comments. It’s what I’ve been doing while trying to get “off” the BBS for a bit. I don’t mean any offense. I’m going to leave my post as it stands though.
May all be well.
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Hahahaha!
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Anybody who can artfully mix that Kid Koala track with the Art of Noise one I left a couple of days back wins brownie points. Maybe the whole Internet, if you crush it.
I want to not be a grad student by the end of this year… Whether that means I can get an academic job
Although a friend of mine did get an on campus interview! Hopefully, it’s turning around for those of us who are looking to be academics! Maybe one day, you can write the books you want as an independent scholar?
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I think about it. A lot of folks think I have at least a book or three in me. I have ideas but it isn’t clear if they are ideas that others are interested in reading about. I’d like to write things about popular intersections in spirituality. I don’t talk about it much here but my MA was on religious thought in esotericism and my personal background was a couple of decades as a modern Neopagan before I became my bad Buddhist self. In some ways, I’m post-Buddhist or Pagan Buddhist (see my http://pagandharma.org for dated ideas). There is at least a popular level book in some of this and there are some aspects of Buddhism in the 20th and 21st century that people know about, if they pay attention, but folks don’t often write about.
Someone writing a smart history of how Zen in America went from being a immigrant only thing to becoming a mass popular movement is probably worthwhile. The people who were part of it have all been dying though.
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I’m practicing perfect sunsets myself. (It’s a bit blizzardy out just now, so here’s one from summer)
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this looks promising.
Oh, I think you’d have an audience for this, for sure, especially about Zen in America… I’m not a religious studies guy, but I’d be interested in reading that history, actually. It’s an interesting and fascinating topic. You should totally go for it. I bet you’d be able to find a publisher easy enough with a solid pitch, especially with your religious background.
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People do, and more people used to. It was an ideal to aspire to.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
But throughout history, the age of majority has slipped and slipped. By the time one is 14 or so in earlier or simpler societies one was expected to have pretty much learned everything there was to learn, and childhood could end. We’ve kicked that on a bit over the last two thousand years, to 18 in theory (old enough to vote for Richard Nixon, old enough to die in Vietnam), but 21 in practice (old enough to be trusted with alcohol). And people do grow up at those ages, but growing up is a profound mental change, an end of receptivity and curiosity and a change to single-mindedness and drudgery and figuring out how to expend the least amount of effort at work and evenings in front of the television. But also giving up your life for that of your children.
Increasingly, the modern world requires people who “don’t grow up” to be able to adapt and manage ever-changing requirements of contemporary work, even life. And while I don’t much feel a loss at not growing up, I have to admit there are some issues, one of which being the problems associated with trying to start a family at an advanced age, even for my (substantially younger than me) partner.
I’m also, for the first time in my life, looking to buy a house. I think of this every time I sit down with our real estate agent or talk about mortgages. I was amused to look it up again and realize it’s only about a lease.
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Well, sure. I think I should probably write something I already know first though. Less research to write what you know. 
The question is what though.
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Sure. You know the field far better than I, so you could probably answer that question better than I. Maybe just, as you say, start with what you know! Either way, I’m sure it would be interesting and would have an audience.
Thanks.
One of the classic geeky problems is there are things that I (and you and others here though not the same ones) are into that are very interesting…to you and 1,000 other people. If I write a book, I want to have a real publisher (not self-published), which means they have to think at least, what, 10,000 or more others are interested? 
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there are many ways in which i feel like i did when i was 15 or so. i find it all pretty funny when i get into hyperresponsible situations rather than grow concerned.
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This is less of a goal in life and more a change in perspective that I’m wanting to focus on. My current medication can have some interesting side effects including weird mood swings. If anything, I’m less aggressive or negative towards others than before though (increased aggression can be a side effect), so I’m going to stick with it for the time being. I like this simple advice, as it both focuses on the positives and encourages gratitude towards others rather than self-criticism. Both are good for my own well-being and should make it easier to live with me.
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All the more reason to interview them ASAP, even if it takes you a bit longer to get the final book out.
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