BOOKS – WRITING – HUMOR – ABSURD
written by Laolu Ogundele “I want to be happy…” Well, that’s a song that was created by late American broadway composer, Vincent Youmans and his crew in the early 1920s. It is a catchy tune that has been featured in a number of films since its release. But what’s most interesting to me is the music title, “I want to be happy…” What does it really mean? We all think we...
(Based on the book ‘Happy’ by Derren Brown) What is the secret of happiness? How do you know when you feel true happiness? And what does it really mean to be happy? We often ask ourselves these questions at different stages of our lives, and every self-help book claims to have the answer. Moreover, the endless hours of “positive thinking”, constantly setting and striving for goals, and following visualization rituals...
Based on The Insanity of Normality (Arno Gruen) and Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein) You have the free will to choose either to be or not to be… We learn it very early on, almost from the cradle; but as soon as we grow up, we are simply capitulating by giving up our free will to the group we belong...
It’s been a while… But considering that time is not fundamentally real, and everything around us is happening simultaneously, I was probably absent only for a tiny moment, a billionth of 0.0000000000000000247 second (or 247 zeptoseconds) — the period in which a single particle of light is passing through a molecule of hydrogen. I didn’t write a word all that time, too. And it felt good. ‘Cheers’ for the freedom...
(short story, written summer 2021/1498 words) When someone asks if I’m in a relationship or not, I always answer: “Of course, I am.” Usually, as a sign of acceptance, the person pats me on the shoulder with the following question: “So, how is it?” “It’s demanding,” I sigh. My understanding interlocutor winks and coughs, or sometimes an unexpected alien laugh escapes his mouth. At this moment, I lower my eyes...
written by Laolu Ogundele What pops into your mind when you think about creativity? Donatello carving out David’s sculpture in a slab of marble or Leonardo Da Vinci dutifully painting the Mona Lisa? If you do, that’s fine – and correct. However, let’s bring it closer to home. What are some creative things that you have done recently? Yes, I’m asking YOU, the reader. Don’t squirm. Don’t slink into the...
We suffer the most when we believe that we have no efficacy in our lives, that nothing we do can improve the outcome. This book will help you understand that our feelings and thoughts create our behavior; much of our suffering stems from the misconception that we can’t be loved and genuine – that if we are to earn others’ acceptance or approval, we must deny or hide our true...
(from the book “Man and his Symbols,” by Carl Jung, M.L. von Franz, and John Freeman, 1964) Most people confuse “self-knowledge” with knowledge of their conscious ego personalities. Today the enormous growth of population, undeniable in large cities, inevitably has a depressing effect on us. We think, “Oh, well, I am only so-and-so living at the such-and-such address, like millions of other people. If a few of them get killed,...