The audio quality isn’t great, so here is a transcript:
“All right, well, here we go. This is something completely new, and I probably won’t repeat this, but this is somewhat a special occasion, and I will explain why, and that’s why I thought it would be not a bad idea to start something new. Maybe some of you remember Monty Python, they always started a new episode or a new sketch with “And now for something completely different.” That’s what I wanted to do today. It’s more or less just an experiment.”
“First of all, this Substack is now about four years old. And I want to thank all of you, all of my dear subscribers, and especially those of you who pay some money, who pay the subscription fee, which you don’t have to do, it’s just because of the kindness of your hearts. And I really appreciate that, and I want to thank you for that. It’s very, very nice of you. So, so that’s one thing. The other thing is that in a bit more than two weeks I will turn 80, and so I thought, all of this needs to be a little celebrated.”
“It’s sort of just a number to me. I don’t believe one has to act or be or think or feel a certain way, depending on what number your age is. But I definitely can feel it. I feel it in my bones. They’re more creaky, and I have less energy. So all those things definitely play a part. But nevertheless, I don’t want to let this influence me too much.”
“So when I look at my Substack, I checked it, and I have over 230 posts. So that’s really something I’m proud of. I started out because I wanted to write about being vegan. But even at the very beginning, I thought ‘vegan’ is sort of restrictive. You know, it means, like a certain kind of people who don’t eat animal products, or who don’t use animal products. And to me, that’s just part of something much larger, because it also means you’re involved, you’re really concerned about the environment. That’s definitely another reason why one shouldn’t consume animal products, and health is, of course, also important. And so because of all of that, the focus of my subset has a bit changed. It’s not only about being vegan, although I still every once in a while add some recipes. They never have great photos. But I hope you don’t mind. And over the time, I’ve been writing about a lot of other stuff, including, more personal things, like, for example, the many travels I did when I was in my 20s, in my 30s, I guess, and I would like to continue with that. I have not written so far about the four years that I lived in Japan. That’s when my daughter was born. And so this is something that I definitely want to add at some point.”
“I’ve also written about the relationship with my mother. Today is Mother’s Day. And I realized that as much as I didn’t get along with her when I was a kid, when I was a teenager, or when I was an adult, I’m more aware of the gifts that I got from her, like a love for literature, love for art, she would drag me into museums, into churches, not for a mass, but just because they were beautiful works of art. For that, I’m definitely grateful to my mother, and maybe today on Mother’s Day, this is a good Day to express that gratitude.”
“I also started to write a bit about movies. I thought that would be something that people were interested in, because I love good movies, and I thought I would write about those that I really find special, but I don’t think that has is really resounded very well, so I haven’t had much feedback, so I don’t think I will do much of that.”
“But then, of course, what really has crept in recently, the last year, is all the political stuff, and I don’t really like this. However, it’s so hard to keep out of your life, I bet many of you will sympathize, and you experience the same thing. It’s like every day you read something new that completely wipes you out, and that you find just completely incomprehensible, and the whole situation is just really something that I can’t wrap my head around, because I can’t understand how somebody who is clearly unfit can lead the U.S. Of course, I don’t think this man ever was fit to be president of this country. That’s another thing. I bet many of you agree with that. But over the last year or two, or whatever, his mental capacity has suffered tremendously, so that he can’t even really speak coherently anymore. And I don’t want to tell you all that, because that’s something you all know. I just want to share that I find it hard to keep this out of my life, and so that’s why this is creeping into my Substack, and it also affects the Substacks that I read. I used to read a number of Substacks that were unrelated to politics because they were interesting, and I liked what the people had to say. They were funny or creative or otherwise special. And I find myself spending less and less time on that because I spent so much time reading the Guardian’s news articles and reading other Substacks that explain and talk about what happened the days before, like Robert Reich, of course, and Heather Cox Richardson. She’s one of my absolute favorites, and I bet many, many of you share this. And so that’s why it has crowded out some of the ones that I love to read and I don’t have the time anymore. And I don’t know what to do about that. I. So anyway, I was looking back now about the last few years.
Because when I first started this newsletter, this Substack, I still lived in New Mexico, and it was still under Biden’s presidency, which may not have been perfect, no president ever is, of course, but compared to what we experience these days, it was an absolute pleasure. It meant that you didn’t really have to be involved with politics all that much. I don’t know if that’s sort of a lesson that we are learning, that maybe even at the best of times, one should not really sort of shut it out. You know, being involved with politics and democracy. Anyway, it was definitely a happier time. And also, I was still living in a tiny little house in a tiny little village in northern New Mexico with absolute peace and quiet all around me. I had at least three dogs. Sometimes I had five or six, because I had some doggie guests whose humans were out of town for a while. I miss that time, and as happy as I am now being here with my daughter, which I wouldn’t change for anything in the world because it is absolutely so wonderful, I do miss the surroundings that I had; but that’s how it is now.”
“So when I try and look forward, I’m hoping that maybe there will be some balance between being involved with politics and being involved with what goes on in the world, without it penetrating in such a painful way into your personal life all the time. I really felt like there should be a class action suit for emotional violence that everybody could sign, because I feel so abused by the current regime. I know I’m definitely not the only one. Hopefully there’s going to be some change soon.”
“What else I would like to write about? I would like to continue writing about all sorts of strange and beautiful and curious creatures, animals and maybe even plants, insects, all those wonderful, wonderful beings that just become more and more fascinating the more I get rid of this dislike that I used to have when I was a kid. I think I wrote about that once, I was afraid of spiders, and I thought I was afraid of snakes. Afraid is the wrong word, it’s more that you feel revulsion, or you feel like, somehow they attack you, or somehow they do something to you. So it’s not just afraid, because to be afraid of a rattlesnake seems like a sound impulse. There’s nothing wrong with that. But when you see a garter snake and you feel freaked out, that is pretty irrational.”
“I have learned for quite some time now, to step out of these kinds of irrational phobias. And I have learned that all these creatures are just extremely fascinating, and that’s what one shuts out. You know, if you say I don’t like something or I’m afraid of it, you’ll never learn anything about this creature. And that’s really a shame, because there are so many unbelievably interesting and fascinating creatures that then also become rather beautiful, once you overcome this feeling. And it has something to do with being connected to everything, and that’s what I want to write about more also, because I think that is very a crucial component of our consciousness that people have to really expand to include all sorts of beings, plants, animals, creatures, insects, whatever, forests, mountains, because it’s this insulated ego consciousness, I think that’s really at the root of all our problems, Which definitely is destroying the environment.”
“And so if we want to keep our environment, our Earth, in a way that will support us humans, we have to change that. That’s something I want to write more about, am I really this insulated “I” that is only in my personal body. And when I think about it, even that is not really a singular “I”, because there’s all kinds of creatures, microscopic creatures living inside of me. Even on your eyelashes, there are all kinds of little creatures that live there. Google it and look at the images! So when you say, “I”, who do you mean? Who is this “I”? It’s definitely not this one singular kind of atomistic entity, because that just simply doesn’t exist.”
“So okay, I think maybe that’s enough for right now. I just wanted to thank you all again for being a supportive readership. I hope you had a lovely Mother’s Day.”
