A daily ritual that I have observed for several years now is to begin each day by reading from selected philosophical and theological texts. Last year, alongside revisiting the Stoics, I managed to give myself a grounding in Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. I supplemented these with some early Christian monasticism and the maxims of the 17th Century philosopher Baltasar Gracián.((Hat tip to Doug Belshaw for that one.))
Gracián, Baltasar: The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence
Mascaro, Juan: The Dhammapada
Seneca: Letters from a Stoic (r)
Tzu, Lao: Tao Te Ching
Walker, Brian Browne: Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
Ward, Benedicta: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
I have begun 2021 with fewer texts, covering a wider range of subjects and ideas. Alongside Aurelius and Seneca, I am going to re-read specific sections of the bible; take a broader look at Western philosophy((I feel that I have a firm understanding of Stoicism. And from sixteen years of teaching A-Level Literature and Media Studies, a sound understanding of more modern philosophies, particularly romanticism, modernism and post-modernism. My knowledge of various religions is good and I have a reasonable grounding in Eastern philosophies and theology but there are significant gaps in my understanding of Western philosophy. I hope that Bertrand Russell’s much lauded (and criticised) book can help begin to plug those gaps.)); and also read Stephen King’s ‘On Writing‘ which has been sitting unread in my Kindle Library for over a year. Not a philosophical text per se, but one that I hope will go some way to helping me achieve one of my goals for 2021.
allowing my task list to build up((Do, defer, delegate or delete.))
looking at my mobile phone when people are talking to me
reading doomscrolling the news((Once per day is more than enough))
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exercise
reading((After reading 41 books in 2020, I want to challenge myself to read 50 in 2021.))
saving money
seeking opportunities for personal growth
writing
None
making excuses when it comes to exercise((I will get outside and run even if it is icy cold or teeming down with rain. And if I really can’t get outside to run then I will work out at home. There are no excuses. There is always enough time, enough ways to keep to fit, and enough tools (apps/videos/guides) to be able to exercise every day.))
skipping my ‘morning reading'((One of my daily rituals is to read from a selection of philosophical and theological texts. It helps focus my mind at the start of the day.))
I also made some changes to my daily and weekly reviews that kept me better organised.
avoiding difficult / time-consuming tasks
I did well with this as well, in part due to the improvements I made to my organisation as noted above. In particular, I started using the ‘forecast tag’ in OmniFocus for these tasks and also scheduled time in my calendar for when I would work on them. This meant that they were always visible and would not be missed in my daily review. Scheduling time in my calendar meant that progress was made on them each day until they were done. Incremental progress FTW!
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trying new foods and recipes
Jennifer and I are always exploring new recipes but we did even better this year building a wide range of new meals into each month. And like 2019, we struck a healthy balance between meat-based dishes and vegetarian ones.
rediscovering old music
I immersed myself in Jazz, exploring a wide range of styles (hard-bop, modal, avant-garde…) and musicians. I improved my knowledge of the genre’s development and discovered a number pieces that entered into regular rotation. My top three tunes for the year are:
Having spent a lot of time over the years listening to the more avant-garde and challenging work of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, I was surprised to see how much I leaned toward smooth and modal Jazz over the course of the year. Red Garland, Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner (all pianists) featured prominently. Maybe I am mellowing out!?
In addition to this, I also revisited a lot of music from my youth (80s/90s). According to Spotify, my most listened to artists this year were: Queen, Radiohead and Nick Cave.
I spent some time listening to classical music too; mostly Beethoven, Chopin, and Fauré, so the piano featured prominently there as well. Maybe I should learn to play the piano in 2021?
I made a number of new playlists in Spotify and updated some of my existing ones. They can all be found via my Spotify profile.
visiting new places
This did not happen for obvious reasons. Instead we made the most of our local area while doing all that we could to keep ourselves and other safe. The time spent here at home was not wasted though, I read more books than I have done in a long time.
mobility exercises and yoga
I failed miserably with this one unfortunately, and I haven’t done as well with my running over the last three months of the year either. Exercise has to be a habit and requires commitment. I will be re-committing to this in 2021 and ensuring that I can forge good habits to get back on track.
(cont.) writing
In terms of writing, I never truly found my mojo. That said, I did publish 24 full blog posts (20 more than 2019 ). Two blog posts per month is not what I was aiming for at the start of the year. As with exercise, writing has to become a habit. I will be committing to working towards this in 2021 as well.
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(cont.) looking at my mobile phone when people are talking to me (still trying to make this stick!)
I finally made some headway with this in 2020. I took to leaving my phone on the coffee table or even in a different room and this helped. Still, I can do even better so this item will graduate to the ‘Less’ section for 2021.
saying yes to projects or ideas that will only have short-term or limited impact (aiming for a year of quality not quantity)
When faced with a pandemic, partial school closures and a constantly changing set of guidelines and rules, it has been hard not to have to work on projects that were about ‘short-term’ impact. Sometimes you simply have to adapt to the needs in front of you and I feel that alongside my colleagues, I did a good job in helping to keep the school going under very challenging circumstances.
‘Reading more’ was not one of my goals for 2020, yet it was my best year for reading in a long time. I’m sure the lockdown contributed to this but I am pleased that I maintained my momentum once I returned to a fully open school in September. On top of the 41 books listed below, I also read over 1,500 articles from The Guardian, as well as countless blog posts and articles from across the web. A good year all round, and one that at least from this point of view, I feel much richer for.
Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (r(((r) Indicates ‘re–reading’.)))
Adams, Douglas: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (r)
Adams, Douglas: Life, the Universe and Everything (r)
Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations (r)
Confucius: The Analects
Dexter, Colin: Last Bus to Woodstock
Dexter, Colin: Last Seen Wearing
Dexter, Colin: The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
Dexter, Colin: Service of All the Dead
Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol (r)
Epictetus: Discourses and Selected Writings (r)
Gracián, Baltasar: The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence
le Carré, John: Call for the Dead
le Carré, John: A Murder of Quality
le Carré, John: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Le Guin, Ursula K.: Tehanu
Le Guin, Ursula K.: Tales from Earthsea
The Finder
Darkrose and Diamond
The Bones of the Earth
On the High Marsh
Dragonfly
Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Other Wind
Le Guin, Ursula K.: A Description of Earthsea
Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Word of Unbinding
Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Rule of Names
Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Daughter of Odren
Le Guin, Ursula K.: Firelight
Le Guin, Ursula K.: Earthsea Revisioned((This completed my first reading of the entire ‘Earthsea Cycle‘. I read the first three novels in 2019 and took a break but I was very happy to rejoin Ged and Tenar; not least due to the revisioning Le Guin undertook returning to Earthsea eighteen years after ’The Farthest Shore.‘ Her exploration of womanhood and female empowerment from ’Tehanu‘; through ’The Finder‘ and ’Dragonfly‘; culminating in ’The Other Wind‘ was deeply gratifying. I admire Le Guin’s bravery in returning to a world she had firmly established and to then completely redefine it.))
Mascaro, Juan: The Dhammapada
Melville, Herman: Moby Dick
Seneca: Letters from a Stoic (r)
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Roseanna
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Man on the Balcony
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Laughing Policeman
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Fire Engine That Disappeared
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Murder at the Savoy
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Abominable Man
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Locked Room
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Cop Killer
Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Terrorists((It was very satisfying to immerse myself in such a tightly constructed sequence of crime novels; and interesting to read the series that established nordic–noir as a genre.))
Tolkien, J. R. R.: Tales from the Perilous Realm (r)
Roverandom
Farmer Giles of Ham
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
Smith of Wooton Major
Leaf by Niggle
On Fairy Stories
Tzu, Lao: Tao Te Ching
Walker, Brian Browne: Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
Ward, Benedicta: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
Jennifer and I ushered in the Christmas break by treating ourselves to Chinese food and watching ‘In theMood for Love’ by Wong Kar-Wai. It is a personal favourite; and one that we have enjoyed together for as long as we have been a couple.
Built on a modest premise, Wong meticulously depicts the heartbreaking (unrequited) romance between Su Le-zhen (Maggie Cheung) and Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung). Moving into next-door apartments with their spouses, they come to the unhappy realisation that their respective partners are cheating on them with each other. They consider the possibility of their own affair but agree they will not act on their feelings for each other, lest they be “no better than they are.”
The film’s impact is indebted to its modesty. The romance between the two leads evolves in vignettes: glancing looks, passing comments and brief encounters are all we are given for the first thirty minutes of the film. They only begin to spend more time in each other’s company once they admit the truth of their spouses’ infidelity. Yet, they never act on their true feelings for each other. As Roger Ebert noted, reviewing the film in 2001: “whole continents of emotions go unexplored”. Wong reinforces this narratively, skipping from event to event the connective tissue is discarded leaving space for the viewer to fill in the gaps. Like a good Hemingway novel, what is not said (or seen) is as important as what is.
As moving as the romance between the two leads is, this is not why I so frequently return to the film. ‘In the Mood for Love’ is a mood piece about Hong Kong in 1962. The soul of the film belongs to the city itself. The cinematography, mise-en-scène and music are expertly matched, capturing the city and its inhabitants in a very specific time and place. Drawing inspiration aesthetically from film noir (Wilder, Preminger), minimalism (Bresson) and narratively from Hitchcock (Vertigo/Rear Window), the Hong Kong of Wong’s childhood is rendered mysterious and alluring with a dream-like quality that is intensely beguiling.
Shots linger, focussing on consequential and inconsequential details alike, and the pacing is deliberately slow. Even the many iconic tracking shots of Maggie Cheung, on her way to buy wonton noodles, add to the static, dreamlike quality of the film. As Wong put it himself: “We tried to recreate the film from our memories. And in our memories, everything moves much slower.” Filmed almost exclusively in medium shots and close ups, you are never quite sure where or when events are taking place; the scenes “surface and then submerge back into the murk of memory” (Steve Erickson, 2012). Low angles, and carefully positioned shots placed just outside windows or inside doorways create an intimacy with each location; placing the viewer in situ with the surroundings and characters.
Wong’s canvas is painted in saturated colours and musky hues. It is in one moment vibrant and the next shadowy and subdued. The props and costumes are similarly contrasting; Jadeite vases and cups standout against backdrops of deep reds and browns and the cheongsams worn by Maggie Cheung shift between warm and cold colours reflecting the changing mood of the film’s narrative. The music that complements the visual aesthetic is a mixture of perfectly timed pieces that capture a city caught between its past and present. Chinese opera and classics of the solitary island period sit comfortably alongside the gentle warmth of Nat King Cole. Yet it’s the haunting melody of Yumeji’s Theme that most accurately conveys the nostalgic, meditative atmosphere.
Every time I watch the film, I am struck by its contradictory nature. Exotic, yet universal; subtle, yet bold; it is a masterpiece of filmmaking that succeeds in being both mysterious and seductive. The streets, apartments, offices and noodle bars of 1960s Hong Kong are brought to life; and they are both gritty and romanticised. Through Wong’s dreamy, voyeuristic lens, the city becomes a part of your own memories.
He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.
