!christyotwisty's Five Questions January 2023
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rawtext.club:70/~xiu
2023-01-04
Boorloo/Perth, Western Australia
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1. What are you grateful for from 2022?

  2022 was the year I reviewed my relationship with
  digital technology. I quit "social media" and sought to
  explore and nurture my friendships and relationships
  away from the platforms where they'd developed.

  Where too-easy communication may leave one unsure if a
  friendship is real or simply convenient, moving to a mode
  of higher friction not only tests and distinguishes,
  but also seems to strengthen genuine bonds.

  I am grateful for the connections that proved true.

2. Has the internet changed the way you think?

  Yes, and I'll stick with a short answer for now,
  because there's a lot to unpack and I'm not ready for it.

3. What do you believe is true though you cannot prove it?

  That capitalism has been an experiment gone wrong and
  is making us miserable. I feel we can still have nice
  things that resemble parts of capitalism, but the way
  it's set up right now is very broken. I can't prove
  this and I don't know enough to go into detail; it's
  just a sense.

4. What have you changed your mind about and why? If
possible, use an example from 2022.

  That the world is a dreamy, lovely place and the stuff
  that's wrong with it are just blips that will sort
  themselves out in the end.

  I realise now that while the world can be dreamy and
  lovely, the bad stuff is an ever-encroaching entropy.
  Lovely is not assured and we are not entitled to it.
  We must exercise custodianship of it.

5. What would you like to return to?

  Guaranteeing no creepy monkey-hand backfire
  implications here, I wish I could return to five years
  ago and reassure myself not to lose faith in
  homesteading just because we moved to a shoebox
  apartment. We have a garden and proper kitchen now, and
  I feel the part of my brain that once appreciated this
  has atrophied. It will take a lot of work to
  neuroplasticise a way back there.

BONUS: Things to love in life

  1. The smell of a village high street lined with
     eateries at dinner time.

  2. Hyperfocus on the preparation of caraway-spiced
     coffee in a French press.

  3. The gentle brush of a rain-drenched rosemary sprig
     across one's cheek.