#2 The Cosmic Curator
There are three sides to a coin: heads, tails, and the edge, where you can stand to see both sides.
Happy September!
📚 What I’ve Been Reading
There are three sides to a coin: heads, tails, and the edge, where you can stand to see both sides.
This past summer, there have been great articles on Substack detailing the superiority of European social life, its culture of relaxation, and its purity of ambitionlessness compared to the US. This is also Substack culture in a nutshell: anti-Hailey Bieber, anti-butt-cheeks-just-for-the-views, pro-cottagecore, pro-free-hikes-in-the-woods-in-thrifted- jeans-and-tattered-flannel-with-no-cell-phones.
Some of the best articles I’ve read on the state of affairs concerning the challenges in American culture come from Serendipity Lab (a recommended publication) and Changing the Channel, including themes of:
Poor urban design in America, leading to the need for cars, and therefore, suffering socially because of it
The lack of serendipitous social interactions in America because of the poor urban design, and the large amount energy required just to align calendars and meet up
Life in America reflecting values of success, career, and accumulating wealth, whereas life in Europe reflecting values of holistic living, family and social life, and tax-supported social services
Both Brian and Kirsten, American expat writers of these publications, live in Spain and Italy respectively, and choose to do so based on their preference for the European way of living. I highly recommend reading these, as they are great thought pieces regarding life outside the lines of just work.
This week, an excellent article came out to react to and critique this “pro-Europe” wave, as if modernism is emerging to react to Neo-classicism.
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