Tuesday 18 February 2025
Where to begin? What should I write today?
The past week, my mind has been made to feel dizzy by writing subject ideas. The problem: choosing one topic over another one. All are equally good. Hence, the procrastination.
This past Sunday was an important day of commemoration for me. On 16 February 2024, Russian authorities announced the (mysterious and suspicious) death of Alexei Navalny. Attending to other urgent matters during the weekend, I wasn’t yet able to visit the Manhattan street where the Russian Consulate is located. I want to see personally if anyone has left any Navalny memorials or protest materials nearby. At the time of this blog, I hope that if there are any signs of a Navalny commemoration, I will not miss them by the time I visit the site. I need some inspiration, anything to ignite a meaningful blog entry.
Lately I have been thinking about travel destinations and writing about them. Initially, when I started my Travel series blog last year, I intended to write my own “1,000 Places To See Before I Die.” I can’t wait any longer, not because those touring spots will disappear (some of them may disappear), but because as the clichéd saying goes, “time’s a-wastin.” Those who truly know me know that I have been talking about Barcelona—Gaudi’s Barcelona, to be precise—for so long, they are stupefied as to why I am delaying that trip. Then there are the Dolomites and the rest of Northern Italy. Having taught both the Japan and Cuba versions of West Point’s Advanced Writing courses—which I affectionately renamed as their Cultural Studies courses—I want to see Kyoto, Mount Fuji, Hiroshima, Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, and on and on; of course, I didn’t forget Havana. I am no admirer of Che Guevara; however, I do want to observe how he is both revered and forgotten by the Cubans. Well, I only count at least 8 here of those 1,000 Places I Need To See Before I Die. I need to finish the countdown.
Months ago on my private Facebook account, I posted an image from Wolfgang Petersen’s 1984 film, The NeverEnding Story, and confessing: “I was tonight years old…why hadn’t I seen the Neverending Story when it came out?” A colleague (both an English professor and fellow classmate from graduate school) suggested I should write a blog about the film. What a great idea! My instincts told me to do so, too, while watching that famous scene, the Swamps of Sadness. Atreyu’s horse Artax loses his battle against the sticky mud, and the Sadness pulls him under. How could I not think of Steve? How he, too, succumbed to the Swamps of Sadness.
Another writing topic I am fond of is mindfulness coloring books for adults. I enjoy this pastime. What a wonderful way to relax and calm down.
I would like to write about AI and ChatGPT (and other versions). What prompted me to consider AI as a blog topic was a newspaper piece about it. On 09 November 2024 New York Times article, “Painting by A.I.-Powered Robot Sells for $1.1 Million” both enraged and saddened me. Sending a link to the report to my high school English teacher, I vented to her: “Humanity really hates itself.” Of course, as a teacher, I must think about whether and how my students will use this ChatGPT technology to write their papers for them. Sigh. Do I foresee a college setting future when absolutely no learning takes place? Sigh. And students still receive college diplomas?
Related to this assault on the Humanities, I would like to write about Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian (artwork), the notorious gray duct-taped banana, which cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun purchased for $6.24 million and then eventually ate it during a press conference. Another Sigh.
Hence the creative and intellectual vertigo. Even a frantic energy which could easily begin writer’s block can overtake me, despite this long list of writing topics. And each of these topics potentially could become multiple blogs.
So, what’s the problem?
As usual, for me, time.