Alex Dobrenko

Identity is contextual and, if we are to live, breathe, and grow, it has to remain contextual. The Internet of the “authentic self” — a loathsome, aberrant idea if there ever was one — is an exercise in slowly getting strangled by your past selves.

So, as I was saying, I was swimming by the cliffs. Every day, walking up and down the coast I found new places to dive in. I got interested in high diving—something I had been too much of a coward to do as a kid. I felt a childish excitement for water. The kids on the beach would look at me, whisper, and laugh. That is one of the pleasures of... See more

Miller begins by considering the true measure of youthfulness:

If at eighty you’re not a cripple or an invalid, if you have your health, if you still enjoy a good walk, a good meal (with all the trimmings), if you can sleep without first taking a pill, if birds and flowers, mountains and sea still inspire you, you are a most fortunate individual and

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Your next great ride is building in a yet unseeable swell. And when it does suddenly make its appearance, you’ve got to paddle like Hell to catch it. I never understood the confluence of luck and effort so clearly.

My observation of the Brat cycle is that most people have never looked up the lyrics to this album — it’s unambiguous that Brat is about... doing drugs in the club ( “Should we do a little key?” ). It’s noteworthy when the right-wing criticism of a thing is more apt than the the left-wing co-opters.