Francis Williams' Philosophy Blog

If you are living in a boarding house, university dormitory or a shared flat you often want to protect your privacy. but what is a better practice: leaving your door open or keeping it closed? Keeping it closed suggests insecurity, that you are uncomfortable with others intruding on your activities but it also entail respect since you cant inspect what people are doing outside as they walk past, and it suggests they are keeping themselves to themselves. On the other hand someone who keeps there door open might be trying to foster a sense of community, albeit they may want to be the person in charge of that community. An open door invites people to look inside and find out, but at the same time asserts quite boldly "look at me, I have no secrets to hide!" A person with an open door may also be a control freak of their own, possibly they want to know the whereabouts of everybody walking past. Maybe they want to put on display how many people visit them a day as if to suggest &q

A cross section of a persons late twenties starting from their graduation or end of student days leading to their mid thirties. The film struck a chord with me because of the death of Axel the long term boyfriend of the protagonist. His reflections about death were very astute, and also resounded with my own views of the transience of life. His monologue to Julia (the protagonist) was very poignant, he spoke about his youth and the importance of meaning being attached to physical objects, something which has changed presumably due to the internet, but in a poignant turn he now realizes that approaching his death all that seems meaningless. All that he was left is a regrettable obsession with the past, clinging on to memories, since he has no future. He later realizes that he doesn't care about his art, or living on through it, he just wants to be happy and together with Julia again.

Flying Imagine how strange it would be if humanity had evolved wings, like birds. How strange the sky would look like, with people suspended in mid-air or clusters of winged people all heading in specific directions. you would have special migration routes for long distance flyers and special towers for them to land on. there would probably need to be a special type of food that you had to eat in order to sustain long journeys. there would be no transport. houses would be different, there wouldn't be doors on the ground floor. there would be openings in the roof, or they might just be like bird nests in trees or high up on mountains. office buildings would look like large beehives, with people hovering in front of their cubicles. Sublime Nights Its been many long years since I can genuinely say that I have experienced a "sublime" evening. Roughly speaking i mean an evening in which everything flows naturally and to your command, without negative influences. When I think o

On Creativity It becomes harder to 'will' yourself into a new creative phase when you get older. I remember clearly the momentum I had when taking an interest in new creative things in my twenties. First music, literature, music again, then even computers. It takes a lot of effort to believe in what your doing, almost a kind of faith, because there's nothing there to really encourage you except your own belief, there's no feedback from the outside. Its like what Bob Dylan said about his early musical creativity, when he wrote Mr. Tambourine man and about destiny - that it was a kind of magic that only you have, its like this special thing that you have that no one else has. The twenties is really the time for that, when your not concerned about things like marriage or job and money. In your thirties this strange fear grips you. Suddenly you become disillusioned with things and more cynical and at the same time your mind doesn't have as many free associations anymor

When I was in my teens and twenties I occasionally got small lumps on my anus which went away after a couple of days. It wasn't until I was in my late thirties that I started to get more serious cases of hemorrhoids. I know that I inherited the condition from my dad who often spoke about it to me when I was younger. He would say things like "don't force yourself to fart, you'll get hemorrhoids" or "don't push or strain too hard on the toilet, you'll get hemorrhoids". I often saw suppositories and Vaseline next to the toilet and wondered what they were for. Throughout my twenties I hardly heeded his advice, and it seemed to be of no concern that I occasionally pushed too hard on the toilet or had hard stools. Then when I reached 37 I noticed that I wasn't as lucky any more. The first time I knew something was wrong was when I saw small traces of blood on the tissue paper after wiping. At the time it was most probably due to straining too hard.