Funfare for the Common Man

This is part 5 (of 10) of my August 2020 Challenge. We’re at the halfway point. I am trying to fit all of my posts into the context of a broader narrative. In other words, that is an unnecessarily pretentious way of saying I hope they all link together, in a way.  Yesterday was Part 1: Embracing the wilderness. For some context, you may to read that post if you haven’t already. There is a very tenuous link to this post. Very . Part 2: Tolerance in a post-truth society: where do we draw the line? Natalia said that she ‘wanted to ask [me] to write smth on the issue of tolerance in the context of post-truth society (where do we draw the line and stuff)’ and I thought this was a great opportunity to make a tenuous link between this and being out in the wild. (why not?) This is a fascinating yet troubling area to grapple with, one that is often on my mind. In fact, it was on my mind a lot last week. When you’re out in nature wandering (and wondering), your mind also tends to wander (an...

Part 1: Embracing the wilderness  (And part 4 (of 10) of my August 2020 challenge) Out in the wild, cut off from the world: a treat. When you read Trip Advisor or Booking.com reviews, you probably notice lots of people complaining about bad wi-fi in their hotels.  The place we stayed in the Carpathians, in Western Ukraine, didn’t even have wi-fi. I didn’t know that before I booked it. I didn’t even check, nor did I care. When we got there and I found out, I shrugged and said ‘good!’ Less temptation. I can say goodbye to the world for 8 days of peace and solitude. No social media. No keeping in touch with people. No news. No sport. Just fresh air, hiking, relaxing, reading, eating, drinking… [Here’s the part where more socially-connected, millennial readers will say, ‘who needs wi-fi when you have a smart phone with 3, 4 or 5G?’ And I will respond ‘but I don’t have a smartphone!’ And then they will come back at me with ‘yeah, but doesn’t your wife have one?’ and I will retort w...