Simplicius Simplicissimus

"I was born of fire like Phoenix. I flew through the air, and I wasn't lost. I wandered in the water, I roamed on land, in such wanderings I made known to myself what often saddened me and seldom delighted me; what was that? I have written it in this book here that the reader, like me, remove himself from folly and live in peace.”

-Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1668)

The Adventurous Simplicissimus (Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus) is set against the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War in Germany and is often called the first adventure novel in world literature. It follows a young man who moves through a shattered world with a mixture of innocence, bewilderment and stubborn curiosity. Only in old age does he retreat into solitude and write down what life has taught him.

This blog follows a similar spirit.

Life itself is an adventure - rarely linear, often ironic. Things unfold differently than we expect. Experiences shape us, redirect us, unsettle us, and sometimes illuminate what we didn’t know we were searching for.

What remains is the attempt to understand:

to trace the paths we’ve taken.

to make sense of what we’ve seen.

and to find a language for the truths that endure.

We have no past, we won't reach back

Keep with me forward all through the night

And once we start the meter clicks

And it goes running all through the night

Until it ends, there is no end

Comment: “All Through the Night“ is about two people suspended in a moment that doesn’t ask for a future - just presence. It’s intimacy without destination, a quiet orbit shared for a little while.

For me, it mirrors a special night over the Atlantic nearly three decades ago, when two strangers talked in the dim cabin light and then drifted apart as the plane touched down. A brief crossing of life paths - meaningful precisely because it ended where it began, yet stays alive in the mind long after the moment itself is gone. One of these “Before Sunrise” moments, but without the promise to meet again.

We remember feelings long after faces fade - emotion is the true shape of memory!

You're so vain

You probably think this song is about you

You're so vain (you're so vain)

I bet you think this song is about you

Don't you, don't you?

….turns out to be “The Swamp“.

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

…

Let's waste time

Chasing cars

Around our heads

Thoughts: Dogs live in the present moment. They pull you out of your worries because they don’t analyze the past or plan the future. When you look at a relaxed dog, you automatically become calm. Life can be simple and light - not unbearable at all 😂.

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.”

-Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

The power of a place lies not only in its history, but in the atmosphere it creates. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the model for Toranaga in Clavell’s Shōgun, ended centuries of civil war and ushered in more than 250 years of stability - Japan’s long peace. At his mausoleum in Nikkō, that legacy becomes almost tangible. The towering cedar trees, the muted light, and the gentle fall of snow create a profound stillness. Even with many people around, the forest absorbs every sound, wrapping the mind in a soft, cotton‑like quiet. It’s like the place itself speaks to you.

James Clavell first encountered Japan as a British officer after the Second World War. He arrived with the usual wartime prejudices, expecting hostility, hardship, and a defeated nation. Instead, Japan confronted him with dignity, calm, and a completely different understanding of life. His assumptions dissolved; his Western ideas about order, duty, and human connection were quietly overturned. What he found was a culture built on balance rather than dominance, on harmony rather than assertion, and on an awareness of beauty that includes sadness and impermanence. That encounter changed him so deeply that Shōgun became his way of passing on this transformation - a story that lets Western readers experience Japan through the eyes of someone who had to unlearn and relearn everything.

I notice something similar in myself. The more I touch this culture - its gardens, its silence, its way of reading the world - the more it reshapes me. Perhaps it is no coincidence that I built a Japanese garden. Some places do not simply impress us; they speak to us, and in speaking, they change us.

Yabushige: How does it feel to shape the wind to your will?

“How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.”

South of the border, down Mexico way

That's where I fell in love where stars above, came out to play

And now as I wander, my thoughts ever stray

South of the border, down Mexico way

Social media mechanics

Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook thrive on instant visibility, quick reactions, and feedback loops. The algorithm rewards what spreads fast and sparks engagement. Posts are fleeting; they drift past in the constant flow of the timeline.

Blog culture

Blogs are traditionally slower, more personal, and more curated. You write because you have something to say — not because an algorithm demands it. A blog is a place where thoughts can unfold, where depth matters more than frequency. Posts remain findable, grow over time, and form an evolving archive.

Public vs. private space

A blog can be public, but it doesn’t force continuous self‑presentation. You choose more consciously what to share and what to keep. It’s a space built for expression and intention, not for constant interaction.

🌿 Additional perspectives

Findability & temporality

Social‑media posts disappear within hours, while blog entries remain visible for years. They can be discovered through search engines and revisited long after trends have faded. A blog builds long‑term presence; social media offers momentary attention.

Depth vs. speed

Social media favors short impulses. A blog favors thoughts that take their time. One reacts; the other reflects.

Archive vs. stream

A blog is an organized archive where content keeps its place. Social media is a river that moves on, no matter how meaningful a post once was.

Identity & self‑image

Blogs allow self‑definition: you show what you think.

Social media demands self‑display: you show what performs.

🤷🏼‍♂️I don’t know what others use Tumblr for, but I’m here to run a blog…. and hashtags can be handy for linking ideas.

I want somethin' else

To get me through this

Semi-charmed kinda life

Baby, baby

I want somethin' else

I'm not listenin' when you say

Goodbye

Comment: The song will forever be linked to Kakadu National Park in Australia for me. A musician couple was playing for the hotel guests with the enthusiasm of two people waiting at the dentist — and no wonder: nobody was really listening. They were performing into a void, getting nothing back. Just blank indifference.

Then our young travel group gathered around them and basically jump‑started the whole evening. Semi‑Charmed Life was a hit back then, and the two could actually pull it off pretty well, so they played it on repeat while a fellow traveler and I belted along like we were auditioning for a very questionable talent show.

Suddenly there was energy, laughter, movement — a real feedback loop. A win‑win situation: the musicians finally had an audience, and we had an absolute blast.

Comment: In this scene, Red (Morgan Freeman) sits before the parole board after decades in prison. For years he tried to say the “right” things to earn his release, always performing remorse the way the system expected. But now, older and stripped of illusions, he finally speaks honestly. He no longer begs, persuades, or pretends. He accepts his past, his guilt, and the reality of his life without fear or self‑deception.

-Jack Kerouac, On The Road

-Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

Thoughts: I do not lead a bourgeois life. I lead a deliberate life that only takes bourgeois forms on the outside. The contrast is significant, not absolute. In that sense, I carry the Steppenwolf within me - without being confined by him.

The Steppenwolf is a perspective. When you feel him, reality changes: the world grows narrower or wider, society seems alien or irrelevant, loneliness becomes a burden or freedom. Everything depends only on how you look on it!

-

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say.

Everything you want's a dream away.

Under this pressure, under this weight.

We are diamonds taking shape.

É que os desafinados também têm coração

-

The thing is, those who sing out of tune have hearts, too.

Comment: The song defends the authenticity of a person who is "not perfect" - musically or emotionally, and criticizes those who judge only by technical or superficial standards.

If you say that I am off key, my love

You must know that this will cause me great pain

Only the privileged have an ear as good as yours

I possess only what God has given me

If you insist on classifying

My performance as unmusical

Lying to myself, I argue

That this is bossa nova

This is very natural

What you do not know or even sense

The thing is, those who sing out of tune have hearts, too

The photograph of you in my Rolleiflex

Reveals your enormous ingratitude

You just can’t talk like that about my love

It is the greatest you could ever find, you know

You have forgotten that music, above all

Is what is carried within the tune

Deep within its breast there beats

Within the breast of my tune