What comes next?
We’ve made it to the end: Part 10 (of 10) of my August 2020 Challenge.
Where do we go from here?
If you’ve missed any of the previous 9 parts, a recap:
So what comes next?
First, a quick English lesson: the past simple versus the present perfect.
This should be easy for most of you.
Compare:
This pandemic period was difficult.
This pandemic period has been difficult.
Are they both correct? No.
In the first example, the use of the past simple – was – implies that it’s finished.
In the second, the use of the present perfect – has been – implies that it’s ongoing, and has yet to finish.
Years ago, I used to be more of a language pedant and I got all riled up my misuses of apostrophes, dangling participles, or other egregious grammar mistakes. These days, I’ve mellowed out and don’t get so bent out of shape.
But this one still bugs me.
I hear this quite a lot, especially from American sports commentators:
‘Yeah, well, he had a pretty difficult season.’
When it’s in the middle of the season.
It really should be ‘yeah, well, he’s had a pretty difficult season (but there’s still time for him to turn things around).’
Okay, now for test time.
Choose the correct option:
A ‘Darnell was very nostalgic over these past 6 months.’
B ‘Darnell has been very nostalgic over these past 6 months.’
A-ha! A tricky question, perhaps?
Roughly six months ago, give or take a week or two, I wrote the first of my 21 posts in this time period, my most productive ever. The quality probably suffered more than usual, but I was mainly aiming for quantity.
There’s no need to go into any detail about what a tumultuous year 2020 has been. And it’s not over yet.
But to quote Winston Churchill:
‘Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.’
I do, though, always look at the end of August – and depending on where you live in the world, the end of summer – as an end of something else, and the arrival of autumn as the beginning. Even when it comes to books, I want to finish up whatever I’m reading in August so that I can start afresh in September.
It probably stems from being a teacher, but I’ve often waxed lyrical about how much I love autumn and how I’m not a fan of spring or summer. We’re now entering what, for me, is usually my favourite time of the year, these next few months. Yes, even going into the winter. I love this time of year.
I’ve often approached the start of September like the start of an entire new year, with resolutions and cautious optimism. Any type of optimism is rare for me.
And some trepidation: for teachers, it’s finding out about your new classes for the year, and whether the kids you’ll be teaching turn out to be angels or devils.
Under normal circumstances – ha! – the start of autumn is a gloriously delightful time, as the leaves change, the days get cooler and football/American football and football/soccer kick off. At the start of a new season, your team is still alive, still has a chance. There is still hope.
So what is next on the horizons?
Unfinished business
Despite what I said about wanting to wrap things up by the end of August, I still have a few unanswered reader questions and other half-baked ideas for posts in the works. I had some interesting suggestions and I was especially eager to answer questions related to a couple of threads:
* living ethically/reconciling religion and humanity’s impact on the environment
* further reflections on fatherhood
And I’ve got many more ideas still to come.
A friend once asked me how I’d classify this blog, what ‘genre’ it fits into. I wasn’t sure how to categorise it, or whether it’s even possible. It’s very eclectic and jumps all over the place. If it were a book in a bookstore, what section would it be in? Another friend once compared it to the band Blur, and how their style has changed so dramatically over the years. A better analogy might be a band’s greatest hits album, with no coherent, unifying style (and without many actual ‘hits’, in my case!).
I asked a friend and devoted Reader to recommend a book for my recent trip to the Carpathians, and she suggested The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes. I was looking for some fiction, and although it’s non-fiction, it’s a classic example of the ‘the truth being stranger than fiction’. It’s a fascinating tale, though also tragic.
The character, Billy Milligan, has 24 different personalities. The ultimate aim, for his therapists, is to fuse these completely different and disparate personalities into one, so that Billy can become whole again. But the process is mind-bogglingly perplexing for Billy, and he can hardly remember which character did what and there are holes and gaps in his memory, and he frequently ‘loses time’ and doesn’t know what one particular character did. He has trouble keeping his stories straight.
I find this a good analogy to this blog, or at least the thinking process behind it. One day I have one idea, the next something totally different. And I have started at least 5 or 6 posts that are in their infancy, to be continued at a later date.
The answer to the nostalgia question
I was certainly feeling much more nostalgic back in March, April and May…and it’s slowly dissipated since then, but that nostalgia is still there, lurking. I can’t shake it. I thought it might be an age thing. It was undoubtedly a pandemic-related thing. I was, like millions of us, working from home, fortunate enough to be able to do so. It was hectic when my daughter couldn’t go to kindergarten and my wife and I were both working from home, trying to juggle duties. On top of all of this, on top of all the time I was already spending at my computer, with my neck and arms aching from the excessive sitting and writing, I still felt compelled to reconnect with many old friends and write epically long messages to friends old and new, and I spent endless hours catching up with old musical ‘friends’, meaning re-listening to and re-discovering old long lost musical classics, and especially listening to whole albums in their entirety, which seems to have become a dying art.
I covered some of my music nostalgia, amongst other things, in this post from April:
And then, in the midst of a particularly mopey and maudlin period of reflection and contemplation, I started putting together ‘a life in music’ post, which may be of interest to a mere handful of readers and friends, but was something I wanted to do. But I just couldn’t get it together and find the right angle or approach for it, and I struggled to translate my musical ruminations into something clearer and more coherent.
I want to return to that before 2020 draws to a close.
But in the meantime, in the short-term, I’m taking some time off. August was a fun, but trying month of writing, and I do think the quality may have suffered.
I’ll be back in a month or two with more of my reflections, whether on fatherhood, music or existentialism or some other nonsense. Who knows. We’ll see.
What I’ve been reading (books)
The USA trilogy, part 2: Nineteen Nineteen, John Dos Passos
The Minds of Billy Milligan, Daniel Keyes
The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene
The Pleasure of Finding Things out: The Best of Richard Feynman
Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays, George Orwell
Travels, Paul Bowles
What I’ve been reading (links)
I’ve done a lot of link sharing this year. These are my favourite things I’ve read in the past month or so.
The semi-satisfied life
Renowned for his pessimism, Arthur Schopenhauer was nonetheless a connoisseur of very distinctive kinds of happiness (Aeon)
The reason why some people don't wash their hands
There are millions of non-hand-washers hiding among us. Why won’t they adopt this simple hygiene habit – and how can we change their minds? (BBC Future)
The Japanese city that banned ‘smartphone-walking’
Can a ban on ‘smartphone-walking’ work if no penalties are attached? Officials in Japan’s Yamato City are optimistic. (BBC Worklife)
In lockdown with a conspiracy theorist
Coronavirus was only one of Mary’s worries. Her mother had become obsessed with the QAnon conspiracy. And Q always came first (The Economist)
Love you to death: how we hurt the animals we cherish
Something has gone badly wrong with the way we keep pets. Our casual cruelties are a symptom of our unhealthy relationship with other species. (The Guardian)
The last of the Zoroastrians
A funeral, a family, and a journey into a disappearing religion. (The Guardian)
Do you really need it - or only want it? Here's how to tell the difference
Next time you have the urge to check your phone, or have a second cocktail, remember you might not enjoy it as much as you think (The Guardian)
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