Life

  • Just getting around is useful

    The free country idea is worn out due to its overuse. We forget what it’s really for. We also forget the differences. It’s not a matter of just saying it for effect, it’s a matter of making sure it makes sense.

    The point is to illustrate the choices that people have versus the conditions of consequences. This has intrigued philosophers but it also relates to our daily lives.

    A shot of a lead street to China Town, a central cultural district in London, UK.

    The freedom to move around isn’t something a criminal can take for granted. It’s a practice used by many to get businesses going, meet someone they know, or to find out something new to do.

    This is commonly how most of us have to live. It helps us find new properties, gives us new employment opportunities, and introduces us to totally new, friendly people.

    However, it also makes for an interesting exercise in self. It opens up new interests, brings into view further resources, and makes for a more satisfying experience of things that have everyday value.

  • Our infrastructure design needs more work

    The largest works of infrastructure the UK has are at the centre of attention.

    The large shopping centres that have huge footfall. The rail network that’s in need of a public service update. The football stadiums receiving their long-awaited revamps.

    These are the places, the icons, the structures that take our attention away and lead us to somewhere else in our minds.

    A shot of a concourse in Waterloo Station in the centre of London.

    It’s a story that’s new because for too long many parts of the UK had buildings that were no longer in use and eyesores for many.

    These are now giving way – slowly but surely – to new standards of living and entertainment. It’s also proving practical, and purposeful.

    The intent needs to be to make our unique spaces safe and useful for us everyday. They need to take the wear and tear of our hard graft.

    They need to take the pressures of crowds and the endless, incessant use of daily commuter types.

  • The new rises up against the old

    There’s a lot of popular philosophy about ‘new’ things, whereas older thinkers critiqued the ancient, the lasting, and the sincere. This is a reflection on the way we invent, create, and own our own identities today.

    A corner of London along the River Thames that shows the recent past against a backdrop of the new.

    This is the future of a generation of cheaper, quicker, and easier means to shared, common goals. It’s not flimsy, hollow, or empty of meaning at all. It’s just how we fit together as modern people.

    The emergence of it is uncomfortable for us, because it sits against the classic, nostalgic, and emphatic ‘stuff’ that’s lastingly told us – and others – who we are. The recent additions are now setting things in newer types of stone.

  • Life adds to itself over time

    The value of a city is relative to its people at any given moment. The past isn’t as pleasurable or intense as the present. This is what we know because of the current times and what it can offer and what it can take away. Our own fecklessness or dodging of reality can lead to a diminished return for everyone else.

    A workman renewing a public sign on the side of a building in central London.

    The lifestyle – or lived experience – in any walk of life is the sum total of what happens around us. This is what makes us feel optimistic or pessimistic about our lives. The potential or the decline of opportunity defines us. The increase or decrease of our own portion of it enables or disables us.