HUMAN ESTATE

Birth. Growth. Emotion. Aspiration. Reason. Morality. Conflict. Death.

The human condition is a phrase that has kept me in a chokehold from the moment it entered my lexicon. It’s as grand as it’s elusive. Clear as it’s obscure. It encompasses the full spectrum of our existence - the sublime and the grotesque, ecstatic and agonizing, transcendent and mundane. We are born, we suffer, we die. In between, we grapple with the absurdity of it all. What an incredibly encapsulating phrase.

This is not a comforting read.

And I’m not in the business of lying to you.

Life is fleeting, yet there seems to be this vast expanse of questions and experiences that punctuate the human condition in a manner so eternal, that it feels like a moral obligation to explore it while I’m still here. Over the past months, I’ve been honoured to share my often gritty and discomforting work with a wider audience and realize that I’m far from being alone. In turn, HUMAN ESTATE is my form of a thank you.

What is this?

A column that serves as an unflinching examination of the human condition through personal essays, cultural commentary, interviews, and much more. This is not a publication meant to please anyone, but rather unearth and encourage that intrinsic curiosity and right we have to ask questions, challenge, and confront the narratives by which we encode and decode meaning from life. It’s for those who recognize that mortality is not a linear progression towards some idealized endpoint, but a chaotic, contradictory, and often agonizing journey with no clear start or finish.

Ultimately, HUMAN ESTATE is about you. It’s about me. It’s about us, and our eternal struggle to understand our place in this bewildering universe. These are not questions that can be easily answered, and I take no pride in saying I have none of the answers. I likely never will, but how beautiful is it to know of our temporality?

It’s because we know that we can cherish what truly makes us happy.

What now?

Most poetically, this initiative requires me to give up something of my own too. All that I have published thus far will be zeroed and re-imported to the new publication. It’s back to the beginning for me. From one end, I’m sad to put a pin in the wonderful conversations and interactions these posts have generated thus far, from another, I’m thrilled to have them reach new eyes and conjure new emotions far beyond. I hope that you’ll choose to engage and stay with me on this journey.

This is not a call to action, but rather an invitation. I hope to see you around.