Make Good Soul: A List

(A typo which works superbly as a title.)

Too often, the online existence of many falls into one of two camps. We can either share the sunny and bright, those insta-friendly, ‘perfect’ moments, carefully arranged and cunningly curated. Or we can overburden and catastrophize, calling loudly about how terrible our lives are, how awful and horrific the world and, if you do not agree, then you are callous and cruel, uncaring and one of ‘them’.

Neither of these really help anyone. And, I think, the way that the algorithmic small gods always place the two extremes neatly into our sightlines is one reason the world feels like it is in such a dark and messy place right now. The feeds so many see—blearily-eyed scrolling first thing in the morning, all the way through until they slump into a restless, flickering sleep—are trickster gods or, perhaps not affording them deification, modern goblins, ‘simply’ mischievous at times, truly malicious at others.

Balance is, as always, key. Balance comes hand in hand with growth, with honesty, and with caring. When the scales are tipped too far in one direction, something always falls, always fails; something always gives.

For this piece, I shall illustrate it with some photos from a recent visit to the ancient town of Die, in the Drôme, France.

At the risk of repeating myself, I’ve already made it clear that I’ve struggled of late, hopefully sharing this struggle in something of a constructive, engaging fashion, rather than a woe-is-me outpouring of misery; in this space, I have always tried to share the wonder and benefit of hard-won hope.

And hope, at this time, is hard for many to find. Myself included, which is precisely why it is crucial we try harder than ever to do so.¹

Our world seems to be collapsing around us. On the one hand, those who are glued to the news, absorbing the misery (or perhaps joy, if they are of a certain chaotic-evil affiliation?), adding it to their own store. On the other, those who merrily go about their way, seemingly without a care in the world. I fall somewhere between these, as per usual, deliberately avoiding the traditional media outlets, or reading the news, having no social media to speak of², but still keeping a proverbial ear to the ground, listening when others talk from personal experience, especially here on Substack, or on Notes.

There is no doubt in my mind that things will get worse too—perhaps for a long, long time. But then, after the current and coming horrors, things will get better, I am sure of that. It is only logical. What the definition of ‘better’ is, however, is another, complicated matter.

The way my brain works is, of course, different to many (as with everyone’s brains, we are all individuals, remember?). Again, this is something I’ve touched on before. A good example is how I view the future, whether through personal or geological time.

If I want to do something, or I want something to happen, I have to set a target date and work backwards from that³. Examples include when I left behind my life in Sheffield, back in 2010, to end up living in the woods for months, or when I set my 40th birthday as the deadline for my leaving the UK to see more of the world (it is currently nearly eight years since I left). I set those targets and pushed myself to work towards them, somehow knowing that things would work out, that it was the right thing to do. I am in a similar situation now, in that my 50th birthday approaches in a couple of years (how did that happen; I was 18 only a few years ago…?!), and I have a few big deadlines and plans associated with that, things I am still not quite ready to share here yet, but plans which I feel, deep down, have to happen and, therefore, in the way of my mind, will.

I also have a bad (or good, you decide) habit of being able to step outside the now of our small and brief lives, and look at a much wider whole, whether the paltry few tens of thousand of years our species has existed, or the longer timespans, over which rocks are formed and the continents spin, utterly rearranging themselves. I can see beyond us and know that—although it is highly possible we’ll destroy ourselves, as is our species’ wont—the planet will heal, eventually. It’s just likely we won’t be around to enjoy/exploit that (but who knows? Hope..).

When everything in our world is subject to such vast upheaval as that we are going through now (the end of the ‘growth for the sake of growth’ capitalist way of being [in my humble opinion, end-stage capitalism is certainly not a viable economic system, but a death cult] and, especially, looming behind all, the ongoing desperate emergency in our climate), it was never going to be easy to deal with. How we proceed will be a matter for each and every one of us as individuals, yes, but we do need to also share and discuss and, above all, listen, too. I firmly believe that good will come from all of this (*waves around vaguely*), but I also acknowledge it will be only after that worse I mentioned, which is almost certain to come first.

Yet how do we keep going, in the face of horrors? How do we gently inform those who are absolutely burying their collective heads in the sand? How do we block out the constant drone and clamour of approaching doom, whilst also somehow keeping a balanced awareness? Where and what is that balance?

These are big, big questions, and I am not truly qualified to answer them; I certainly do not possess all the answers.

I would also be very wary of anyone who claims they do, as they are usually, in my experience, selling something you probably don’t need.

That said, I thought it would be interesting to share a brief list of things I have personally found useful, with the obvious caveat that they might well not all work for you. Apart from the first one, these are not really in any special order, just a random selection of some of the thoughts I have.

• Encourage and learn about nature, whether on a micro or a macro scale. Do your best to leave a place (small or large) in a better, more natural condition than you find it. Sometimes, that means something as simple as always carrying a bag to put any rubbish you find (and you will find it, no matter where you are), at others, it means perhaps breaking the rules to help sow some seeds, for example (I’ve removed the paywall from that link for a piece called The Nature, if you want to read more on my thoughts on this topic). Nature is key and that is the place from where we should ALL start.

• Grow something, small or big, it doesn’t matter which, to eat, to drink, to use as medicine, or simply to marvel at. Tending to a small charge such as this ties you to the rhythms of the world, the rituals of sunshine, moon, and water, of warmth and days passing by. Growing things helps you, yourself, grow.

• On a similar note, make good soil. If you can, try and improve the health of the land wherever you are, composting is (despite what some might have you believe) relatively simple, and the plants will thank you for it. (I mistyped soil there, and initially put soul, which works, too. Make good soul.)

• Also related, learn about seeds, how to grow them, harvest them, store them, prepare them, plant them, grow them...

• Do not give in to despair. Fight it, question it, seek the light in the darkness, find joys in the shadows and appreciate that, even at your lowest, there will be better moments ahead. And, if you do give in, please try not to infect any others with your own misery. I know that misery loves company, but I’d rather not be that friend: I’ve been there before, and it is exhausting and even dangerous to me. Please note, this being the internet, I should point out this does not preclude helping others! That is not the point of this paragraph and, actually, the opposite of what I am attempting to share. Please, please, do not turn a blind eye to suffering, help as much as you are able, but remember to first tend to your own overhead oxygen mask in event of emergency… On which note:

• Do not neglect others, especially those less fortunate. Also, look at children as a centre of all things, even if you do not have or want them yourself; the next generation always has the inbuilt opportunity to be better than the last, but they will only get there with the hard-won experience of those older than themselves. Seek out and listen to the elders or, if you are lucky enough to be an elder, share what you have learned. Substack in particular is full of these voices and I honestly cannot learn enough from them. (And did I mention I will soon be 50? When do I slip into the role of an elder?)

• Hope. Work at it. It is not optimism; in my own opinion it could be argued that, for some at least, optimism is inaction in disguise.

• Share the joy. That seems self-explanatory.

• Talk when you have something worth listening to.

• Listen even more, all the time.

• Pause. Listen again.

• Gently ask questions if you do not understand.

• Know when to be quiet and grow through a certain hermitude. Which, as far as I am aware, is not really a word, but it is something I have used before and I like it. Time alone, or time spent quietly, is time in which our minds can rearrange things into a semblance of order which was perhaps not previously present.

• Show others how to overcome, or live with, the fear. Lead the way compassionately, but with strength. Men, in particular, need to consider this carefully, sharing a version of masculinity which benefits rather than segregates, which has space for growth and the well-being of all at its heart. Masculinity on its own is not a problem, per se, but has been hijacked by a subset of insecure and dangerous individuals seeking to exploit and subjugate. Reject that noise, and pass along a different message.

• Dance more. A real cliché, I know, but it honestly does work. Extra bonus points for combining dance with cooking.⁴

• Listen to music. Keep yourself open to discovering new things.

• Read. Widely. As much as you can. Know when to switch between fiction and non-fiction, know when to choose lighter, ‘easier’ work over that which is more dense. Both reward in different ways: do not be a book/reading snob (I admit, I used to be one when I was younger, mostly because I was told over and over that I should be reading more ‘serious’ work that I was—or had been—that fantasy was simply escapism and detrimental to my development.⁵ We should reject that mindset—read whatever YOU want.)

• Find art you love, learn more about it.

• Live—or visit—somewhere where the idea of foraging does not make you wish there was enough to actually forage. If there isn’t (much of the UK, I’m sadly looking at you, from my personal experience), do your best to begin the process to change that, even if that means carefully breaking the rules.

• Encourage others. I really appreciate all the work and care Barrie at

  Feasts and Fables
  puts into this aspect. Have a peek at the Encourgement Manifesto, as it embodies wonderful values. We should always lift others up rather than put them down. (I could segue into the recent unpleasant events on Substack surrounding Glennon Doyle here, but I won’t, others have already covered that topic much better than I could.)

• Do the work. It is not always easy and there are definitely times when the field needs to be left fallow in order for better growth in the future, but putting in the effort and time will get you there, eventually.

• Try very hard to understand others, whether on a personal or cultural level. Worldviews and patterns of belief might be different, but we’re all human. Even those you find abhorrent are the way they are for a reason—try to work out why, and how you can help them find a better, kinder, more compassionate way.

• Make your own luck. If you believe in it, and keep walking the path outlined above, it will come.

• Finally, make your own list. Hone it. Adding and subtracting, with the good of our species, our world, and yourself at its heart. Never accept a list (such as this one) as your truth, always ask questions. And, crucially—never, ever, be a final product, always be a redraft or edit, instead. Stagnation is suffocation.

The above selection is taken from a document I have sequestered on my phone’s notetaking app (backed up in several places, of course), and it is constantly being altered; sometimes I will type out a long entry then, weeks later, delete it entirely, as it was a product of a moment in time. I have a few other points on that document I have not shared here, as I am unsure yet as to whether they will stay, and a few others which are of a more personal nature.

I do think we could all do with keeping our own such living document (and, by all means, feel free to steal any of the above, or ignore or disagree with me entirely—taking any form of advice from anyone on the internet should be done very, very carefully!). I believe this is a good way to help balance ourselves, to help others and, ultimately, to aid the world. Again, this is not fixed—we should always ask questions, always try to grow—but it is a place to start, something which has certainly helped me and, perhaps, might help you, too.

Do you have such a list of your own? Is it written down, or more a set of values you try to live by? How do you deal with the darkness of the world? (I am well aware these are all BIG questions, and I do not really expect you to answer! However, I do think they are questions increasingly worth considering.)

Finally, I firmly believe we need to use our individual and collective imaginations to envisage a better world. This discussion covers all manner of avenues—philosophical, practical, creative, and pragmatic all together. Once we start sharing and talking about something, it can often begin the process of creating it—just look at how efficient this has been in the return of certain ways of being—ways of being admittedly at odds with my own, centred on fear and hatred of the other, rather than acceptance, joy, and kindness.

After all, if those who follow the former can do it, then those who believe in the latter can, too.

If you find value in these words and wish to support me financially, but do not want to take out a subscription, you can send a one-off tip via this button (and thank you, so very much, to those who have used this, I cannot tell you what that means to me, that you are willing to part with your money simply because you thought something I crafted was worth it):

Many thanks for reading. As ever, I really appreciate that, and stay tuned! There will be more regular posts coming soon, as well as new fiction.

1. I have another essay almost ready to share here, which includes several quotations, mostly from Ursula K. Le Guin. One sentence, which I keep seeing hither and thither is ‘Hope is a slow business’. As I cannot currently find an accurate attribution, where she said or wrote this, I am not presently inclined to include it, but it is wise, whatever the provenance. Hope is indeed a slow, hard-won, business. It should be no other way.

2. The ongoing saga of ‘Alex tries to close down his facebook account’ is, well, ongoing. Several months in, I’ve been passed from department to department and often ignored completely, simply because no one knows who should actually be helping deal with this issues, no one really cares, no one takes ownership, and no one will let me close my account… It just doesn’t work, every time I try it says to try again later... I am keeping all the messages and emails, and am rather tempted to pitch the story somewhere, as I suspect I’m not alone in this issue and it is certainly a reflection of the arrogance and overbearing harvest-all-the-data/lives ethos behind Meta. (I had another email from the ‘special investigative team’, after drafting this footnote. They need more time to look into the matter. Of course they do.)

3. A current example of this is the countdown I started to my fiftieth birthday. Back in November, I noticed it was 909 days until I turned 50, liked that number, and decided to do something with it, taking and sharing a photo every day on Notes. Somewhere along the way, I kept taking photos but stopped sharing and, by the time I thought I should catch up, there were simply too many outstanding to do so, so I let it slide. Now, I still try and take a photo, but have not shared one in a while. Interestingly, on a similar topic, when I do share a photo and caption on Substack Notes, the next day or two I often notice several suggested notes from people I don’t know bemoaning the fact ‘Notes is turning into Instagram’, or ‘This place should be for longform writing only’. Which doesn’t really help anyone. We can all do our own thing here and, I think, that is a big, joyful positive. The chances of me ever doing a ‘Substack Live’ feed are perishingly small and distant, but I don’t begrudge those who make use of this feature, any more than I do those who swear by using a different style of knife in the outdoors, or who prefer to sleep in a bivi bag to a hammock and tarp. We are all wonderfully different and prefer to find our own favourite options, and that is a good thing.

4. Two weeks ago, Ailsa wanted to know what music I had been listening to earlier in the day. She often asks me this when I bring her home for lunch and the speaker is out on the work surface. As it happens, I’d been listening, and dancing, to The Prodigy, so she wanted to listen too, then asked me how I danced to it when I listened. I showed her, of course, and she proceeded to copy what I was doing, which I found rather delightful and amusing. Of course I myself had copied some of those dance moves from Keef and Leeroy, back when I saw the group live in 1995. Which felt like a strange circle. This weekend, I saw her dancing with some other children, showcasing her Prodigy moves… She’s three and a half.

5. Another Le Guin quote is applicable here, often misattributed to Tolkien:

Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?…If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!

Reference is for the currently in-print edition: Le Guin, U.K., Wood, S. and Liu, K. (2024) The Language of The Night: Essays on writing, science fiction, and fantasy. New York: Scribner.