Three Potential Future Writing Projects
The last few years my writing has been focused on two practical areas, politics and academics. That makes sense because I've been holding a political office and got two degrees in that time. With leaving office in a couple of months I like that there are some options, and I'm thinking about what direction I may take my writing.
Stories are so interesting, and powerful. The idea of Sisyphus is something that enthralls me. I bring it up often, often enough that it's a bit of a cliche at the political office. Sisyphus was a clever king in ancient Greece that outwitted death. He was punished by being sentenced to roll a boulder up a mountain, only to always have it roll back down. Pointless, meaningless toil. It's so connected and applicable to life. The philosopher Albert Camus wrote an essay on it, and the last line is, "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
That story, that idea, that philosophy, has many layers to it. It's insightful and useful. If the work we do is just going to be undone, is there a meaning to it, should we continue, should we be happy?
I like the idea of doing something deceptively intellectual with it. A simple version for kids. "A long time ago, in a land far away, Sisyphus was a king. He chained death. He escaped the underworld. He was punished by pushing a boulder up a hill. When he gets to the top, the boulder rolls back to the bottom. Sisyphus walks down the hill after the boulder, and starts pushing it up again. Sisyphus likes his work." This could be done with high quality art, and high quality printing materials. After the story I could include an essay about the topic that would interest adults who are interested in that type of thing. But it needn't stop there.
There could be a version for kids that are a little older, telling more of the story. Then young adults, then adults. There can be first person and third person versions. Third person objective where you just see the story from the outside, and third person omniscient where you get to know the thoughts as well. It can be done as a frame story, as in a person telling a story of the story. All of these are useful to get a variety of perspectives on the issue. It would be fun.
Something else that I've been considering for years is doing an article series and a dissertation for the International Society for Philosophers to get their certifications as associate and fellow. The last few years I've been thinking about doing it with a focus on theology. The Epicurean Paradox is fascinating. It's about the inherent contradictions of the classically thought of nature of God: all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-good. I've been hesitant though because religion is often good and useful for people, and it's easier to break religious beliefs than it is to have them, if you think through things like this. So I've held back, but I still think it would be fun and interesting, and I think useful in searching for truth and insight even though upsetting to many people. There are also interesting comparisons between Jesus and Buddha I would like to explore more, meditation and consciousness, Pascal's wager, and some famous conversions. So I may pursue that at some point.
In a couple of weeks I have a video call scheduled with a professor from England about a PhD idea I have, which is to use the value framework of Viktor Frankl and social reference group theory to evaluate and compare memoirs and autobiographies. Memoirs and autobiographies are amazing. The most wisdom enhancing literature you can read. Life is a wild, chaotic thing, and you see that when you read memoir and autobiography. Between experiencing life and reading other's experience of life you really get an idea and feel for what being human in this vast universe is.
I think that some pattern and insight will emerge, in individual works and in the comparisons. I've just started working through the idea with Josiah Henson's autobiography on growing up in and escaping slavery. Partially because it's an interesting autobiography, and partially because it's short so it's a good test text to work on. What if the value and reference group patterns are similar between successful business people like Conrad Hilton as the founder of Hilton Hotels, Andrew Carnegie as the founder of Carnegie Steel, and Harvey Firestone as the founder of Firestone Tires? What if the pattern doesn't correlate between them? Either answer is interesting and useful, and would be a fun project. Doing that analysis could be a lifetime of work.
My attention naturally keeps coming back to these things, and there's something to take note of there, in where our attention naturally flows. I'm not sure on the timeframe, but most likely I think that over the next few years I'm probably going to pursue all three of these writing endeavors at some point.
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