Hi! Welcome to Chapter 23.
Become evil. Rule the world. Maybe drink tea first and sit down for a bit.
“The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Please Help!
Monday 23rd September 2024. Today at home I tested positive for COVID-19. It’s perfectly safe to read my work but please maintain a safe distance and wish me a speedy recovery. If you’ve ever considered becoming a paid subscriber of Chapter 23, now it the time to do it. Please give me a reason to continue writing here!
Is it weird that I made an offering to Saturn of my old iPhone? I ask for a friend.
Sorry, wrong meeting.
This is the secret post that goes out to paid subscribers on the 23rd of every month. I’m unlocking it for everyone for a limited time. Let me know what you think.
Maybe this will tempt you to take out a free trial of Chapter 23 as a paid subscriber. That’s right. Even when you become a paid subscriber I give you a freebie so you can try before you buy. Because I love you.
I love and appreciate everyone who reads my Substack. But paid subscribers are the ones who make it possible. I’m not sure why some people don’t belive this or don’t like writers saying it out loud.
This month, Master the Art of Effortless Success. The mindset shift you need to succeed in all areas of your life.
That awkward moment when, for all your anarchic nature, you realise that you’ve the same aesthetic as Saturn. The planet of austerity, rules, and limitations. Sounds like me and Saturn have the same dress sense if nothing else.
This amuses me. I don’t care whether it amuses you.
What is the way? Go!
Is it normal for a laminated photocopy to be one of your most treasured possessions? I ask for a friend.
I photocopied a picture from a book on Zen when I was a teenager. It’s an illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt. It’s from ‘Zen, for Beginners’ by Judith Blackstone and Zoran Josipovic. I laminated it and put it on my wall. To this day I still like to keep it above my writing desk and look at it when I’m writing or feel stuck.
It sums up the entirety of Zen in five words:
What is the way?
Go!
It’s among the best advice I’ve ever had.
Medium Rare
Do you want to see one of the last things I wrote on Medium before throwing a tantrum taking a break?
Here it is:
Everything Is Your Fault and You’re Going To Die! I mean that in a good way.
This is a Friend Link. That means you can read it for free without joining Medium.
It also means I don't make any money from my writing there. But that's my general beef with them anyway. At least this way someone will actually see it.
Ooh, burn!
Random Musings
Here’s what’s on my mind. What’s on yours?
I was asked if we have cicada in the UK. The short answer is no. I had to Google to confirm this but the long answer is there’s one species of cicada native to the UK. The new forest cicada. But it’s endangered and hasn’t been sighted in over a decade. I’m pretty sure there’s a metaphor for life in there somewhere.
I took an online course about persuasive writing and speaking. We were asked to name three speakers we admire. Out of over 19,500 participants I'm the only one who said Bill Hicks, Noam Chomsky, or Terence McKenna. Did I miss a meeting? Am I on the wrong planet?
For one payment of a gazillion dollars you can have my complete ten week online course on how to stop buying online courses.
Friend Links
Here are some of the places that I am on the interweb.
Medium — I’m a Top Writer on Medium. Here's a wide selection of some of my best work on Medium. I hope that you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.
jamesgarside.net — My place for stuff and things.
Thanks for reading.
Feel free to ask me anything in the comments!
"And no, that’s not a euphemism." 😂 I agree with so many things you mentioned there. I was even going to talk about what bothers me about the whole manifestation movement in my last post, but I ran out of time. Excellent share 👍
I had a nice comment ready to go and then deleted it, but I came back for take two. The comment I delted, mentioned the cicadas in our back yard. We never see them, but it's pretty hard not to hear them, even with the door closed and my tinitus. We do see their juvenille shells on trees on occasion. It's amazing how they sleep for so long before popping up to live their final weeks as an adult. On getting things done: I'm a skeptic and a procrastinator. I might have some aspect of avoidance going on at the moment which I've caught from my son. I hope Covid is not knocking you around too much. Drink more tea!