I’ve always been intimidated by the idea of documenting my creative process as it unfolds. I think because I’m nervous that I’ll end up with an odyssey of a film that was never made.

“… to be looked at and touched in this way, by a stranger who devotes you their full and undivided attention, is one of the most powerful reminders of the fact that we are living. I often think that one of the only things we can confidently say about why we are here at all is that we are here to remind each other that we are, indeed, here.”

For most of my lifetime, I simply couldn’t have cared less about meditation. Anyone who has been following my writing or who knows about my degree at UofT will know that this has changed. If you will, let me take a few moments to try and sell you on meditation.

I flung my phone out of my pocket to jot this down in my notes a couple moments ago, before returning my attention to the microwave: “There is almost nothing of interest to me in Cinema Studies. Anything that is of interest to me there has stumbled in (or been kidnapped) from the worlds of filmmaking or philosophy. It is in those worlds that I must situate myself.”

“…I’d caught the words “artist” and “film,” but not much else. After I asked what he does, he relished in a lengthy pause, puffed his cigarette, and said “entrepreneur.” I couldn’t tell if this was a Bond villain or simply the most charismatic person I’d ever encountered.”

“You’ll have to start smoking if you want to meet people in Berlin,” a friend joked to me the other day. But she was only half-joking; asking a stranger for a cigarette or a light is apparently a key social strategy in Europe. I was momentarily stung with panic at the prospect of sacrificing my lungs to ignite my social life. Surely I have other tools for breaking ice at my disposal…

“…Well I assume that anyone who’s bothering to read this is at the bare minimum interested in what I have to say. And it’s interesting to me! Surely that’s enough? This very dialogue is meant to illustrate how humour and fiction can be used to explore the human condition, even its darkest corners.”

A serendipitous encounter led me to making a new friend, who thought I was Christian because my name is Elijah.