Hell is a place with no horizon according to British art critic and novelist John Berger. What defines the place of eternal despair is not the physical torments visited on the inhabitants, but the claustrophobia. For the damned, there is no elsewhere, no otherwise, no possibility of change or escape. The awareness presses on them heavier than granite.
I wouldn’t call my world hell, but I do sometimes feel the claustrophobia Berger described. I make a thousand choices every day, but like the three dozen brands of peanut butter in the grocery store, the options feel like versions of the same thing.
This substack is a place to refuse despair. As Berger writes, “First a horizon has to be discovered.” I don’t think he means “discover” the way an early seafaring human might have found an uninhabited island, but the way a sculptor “discovers” the figure waiting in the marble. We search. We contemplate. We dream another world.
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Every other week . . .
I’ll send out a mini essay of searching along with reading recommendations and any scraps I come across that smell like a little wisdom.
Reach out!
I’d love to hear from you! Finding a horizon is easier and less tiresome with companions. Drop a comment, shoot me an email, or reach out to me via social media.
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