The Freedom Life is about ideas, observations, and the personal things I write because I want them out of my head… or simply just because.
Preparing to recrudesce
“Recrudesce” is a word I discovered in Sarah L. Kaufman’s fun little book, Verb Your Enthusiasm, which I’ll confess I bought solely because of its title. To “recrudesce” is to break out anew following a quiet period, so it’s a particularly appealing verb for those autumnal re-entrances into work and life. But it’s also an…
To chat or not to chat?
In my last Freedom Life post, I was about to take a course with some scarily credentialled people. Now four weeks have passed, a better description of them would be scarily cardboard. By ‘cardboard’ I mean it’s hard to discern their individual personalities, so they feel more like cardboard cutouts than fully-fleshed people. Not flimsy…
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
That line is from Baz Luhrmann’s Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen); a ‘song’ I loved in 1997 for its profound and comforting words. (I’ve written ‘song’ like that because it isn’t one, really. It’s just Baz Luhrmann reciting a speech over a generic backing track). I don’t find those words profound or comforting now –…
“Can I ask how old you are?”
Asking someone else’s age is a bold thing to do. Not necessarily because it’s seen as rude (though I don’t know why, really). It’s because people tend to ask, “how old are you?” without preparing themselves for an answer they didn’t expect. I was at a meal recently with some people I didn’t know. A…
A roomful of assumptions
Who first came up with “assume makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’”, I wonder? Did they feel smug as they made the connection? Did they hug themselves with barely-contained glee, anticipating the oohs and ahhs that would surely emanate from the boardroom come Monday? They must have done, because whenever anyone says “assume…
What do “family values” mean when you’re old and childfree?
“I’m looking for someone with strong family values” is the mainstay-sentence of most TV dating shows. Mostly, this is because everyone on TV dating shows is young enough to start a family, which they NEED to want because that’s the default “happily ever after” story everyone recognises. (Nowhere in any fairytale, or Disney movie, or…