As always you are giving me much to ponder upon Leif.

I hope your journeying to create some distance from 'civilisation', are gifts that you can continue to be nurtured by in whichever form you return.

As for the suspension by Medium - I really don't want my life to be reduced to my presence or- lack thereof on Medium... so this suspension was a salutary lesson in many ways, making me reconsider what writing on Medium and engaging with complete strangers online means to me... As I have never used social media much, it has surprised me how important some people had become, who've shared insightful messages that spin into and meld with my own thoughts and analysis and feelings... so suddenly not having access to those people did feel like an amputation.

I'm still in the process of working out a shift in perspective and approach so in the meantime, I am probably not going to be as active here as I have been.

I think there is more autonomy on Substack so I will spend some time exploring that but essentially I think it's not very healthy - at least for me - to shift attention and so much emotional energy from real life contact with people, to online 'engagement'. There seems to be a lot more room for misunderstandings, to develop, for example.