Weeknotes: the one that's not about elections

1. What actions did I undertake this week?

We’ve continued our tour of Belgium’s provincial domains this week in a bid to flip our kids over and help them find the light. With “the light” I mean a moderate acceptance of time spent in nature as opposed to their more common fight and flight response whenever they hear about going for a walk. And it seems to be bearing fruits. Looks like we’re starting to have one and the other to thank Covid for these days!

2. What insights did I gain this week?

That I have to treat my writing like a form of therapy, a form of art if you like. I have been quite stressed about writing these past few weeks, constantly looking for inspiration, for the right topic to cover, to be on top of it all so as not to make mistakes in my articles. I’ve realized now that I need to follow the writing rather than desperately force it to come, like an artist would follow the flow of his paintbrush.

3. What events in my area of interest impacted me the most?

Note: I’ll be steering clear from any comments on the presidential elections. Yes, they have consumed a large part of my week (and my nerves), and yes I am sighing a huge sigh of relief, but more on that next week because the noise out there is deafening right now!

The good?

This week was a good week for books. And what’s good for books, is good for us! Bookshop, a new “revolutionary” online bookshop has united local independent bookkeepers to rival Amazon’s monopoly. What a great example of citizens and civil society taking things into their hands when governments fail to do it themselves. And there’s more: in the current lockdown in Belgium all non-essential shops have had to close. Bookshops however were deemed essential for mental health reasons and allowed to remain open. There’s a lot of bad to be said about the way this country is run, but praise be to the Belgian open mind with its edge of surrealism, always willing to come up with surprising compromises and a refreshing openness for small details that can make all the difference.

The bad?

While all the eyes have been focused on the US presidential elections and Trump’s blatant attempts at undermining democracy, Putin has quite nonchalantly gone and passed a bill that would provide Russian ex-presidents immunity from criminal prosecution in their lifetimes. That’s right, in their lifetimes! I cannot be thankful enough that some sort of sanity seems to be returning to the US so that the world can refocus on keeping an eye on the more usual suspects.