Instead of making a whole show about abstract ideals like “The Economy” and “Liberty” when talking about reopening from COVID-19, call it like it is: we value a certain type of life more than another, even if it inevitably comes at others’ expense.
If luxury is defined as the non-essential, desirable, and extravagant, do we actually have some power to live luxuriously these days?
Perhaps making it through sans magnum opus is the best thing many of us can do right now and if we’re not living our Best Life, at least it’s still a Life.
We walked the noisy streets of Iloilo, eating cheap hamburgers, Banana-cues, and Mangos, knowing a plane was waiting to take us back. But had we not had those miles between us, had their lives not been so different and mysterious to me, had our paths not continue to diverge further and further over the years, had there been less pain in our parting, perhaps we would have enjoyed those humid months a lot less. It was in these moments of realization that I had the best mangos.
In a conversation with a friend the other day, I remarked how I felt oddly “at home” during my short visit to Japan in all its glorious neuroticism; a nation of rules, propriety, and arbitrary rituals. Completely unlike the “Bahala na” vibe of rural Antique,… Read More
