"‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." ---John Keats, from Ode to a Grecian Urn Poetic imagination I've been thinking about the English Romantic poet John Keats for the past month or so as I prepared to moderate a panel on Keat's concept of "negative capability." The panelists included poet Luke Hathaway, visual artist Gwenessa Lam, and Buddhist scholar Jeff Wilson. The event is part of a virtual series entitled Café Philo, organized by … [Read more...]
Social distancing, loneliness, and friendship
I've been listening to Canadaland's isolation interviews. When The Globe and Mail's Robyn Doolittle was asked about the strangest thing that she had done that day, she replied that it was doing her normal job as an investigative journalist, working from home (where her partner and young children also are) on stories that have nothing to do with COVID-19. Like many, I feel constantly distracted by COVID-19 Dolittle's comment resonates with me. I feel odd working on a series entitled "At Home … [Read more...]