For nogle år siden, det var måske 15, men det gør ikke noget, fortalte Claus Kurt Nielsen mig, at jeg ikke var en reklametekstforfatter, og at jeg måtte lade være med at kalde mig selv det.
Hvis det var 15 år siden, ville det betyde, at jeg på det tidspunkt havde udøvet det håndværk, der hedder ’annoncetekstforfatter’ i syv år.
Jeg fortsatte med at øve det i 22 år, og ‘øv’ er en god beskrivelse.
A while back, I finally managed to join the dots. What am I?
as in ‘what is my essence?’
If you ask me my name, I’ll say ‘Nick Berry’. That is what
people call me. But that is not my essence – what I am – any
more than the word ‘chair’ is the essence of chair. We sit on
the essence of chair, not the word ‘chair’.
I am a philosopher. TEST DK
The word ‘philosopher’ represents the essence, ‘lover of wisdom’. That is what I am, and I am not unique. You are a lover of wisdom and so is every other person.
What does it mean to be a philosopher – actively to engage in that pursuit? Michel de Montaigne came up with the definition that works for me: “To philosophise is to learn to die.”
That is what we are all doing: learning to let go of that thing we call ‘life’, which is not the essence of life: its meaning. I reckon that meaning is to find peace. Not happiness, peace. So that we can return to stardust in peace.
What more could I want out of life? To win the Tour de France? The lottery? An Oscar?
Montaigne used the word ‘essay’ to describe his writings. It is the 1st person singular of the French verb ‘essayer’, to try. 1st person singular, present tense: ‘I try’, which is what I do because it is who I am.
The essays on this page are reflections of my lifelong attempt to find peace. My peace, not yours. Maybe something in them will trigger something in you. It is
in that spirit that I offer them.
I hope you find something you can use.
“Reflections on film”
I made the first courageous decision in my life aged 26, and it scared the shit out of me. Here’s how it happened, and what happened after it.
