Essays on freedom and personal fulfilment by Chris Barclay
Ever wish you could change the past? Because if you could, you change who you are now and what’s possible for you in the future. This isn’t science fiction. Who we believe ourselves to be and what we’re capable of is not about events of our past, but how we respond to those events. Every […]
Continue ReadingI like to think of myself as a modern man, without a need for a lot of ritual and ceremony in my life. I’m content to let science explain how the universe works, and base my beliefs on the observable behavior of things. Still I find myself wanting to believe in a system that compensates […]
Continue ReadingWhat do you do in your free time? We ask this harmless question to better know a person by their interests or when we want to steer the conversation away from work. I pose it when I sense that people aren’t inspired in their career, because of the way they say things like, “It’s just […]
Continue Reading“We all want to live. And in large part we make our logic according to what we like. But not having attained our aim and continuing to live is cowardice. This is a thin dangerous line. To die without gaining one’s aim is a dog’s death. But there is no shame in this. This is […]
Continue ReadingOne winter in college I was visiting Paris, sitting at the bistro near my hotel just watching people. An American couple came in and the husband, in an accent I would best describe as “Chicago detective” (the word “Paris” came out sounding like “Pears”), called the waiter and tried to get “Two diet cokes”. The […]
Continue ReadingSince I started writing on UnboundedLife, I’ve given a thought a lot to what freedom is and what it means in the context of human nature. One theme that I’ve come back to repeatedly is mobility; designing a life from a purposeful future, versus living out an extension of the past. It’s a lofty idea […]
Continue ReadingAs someone who writes about the meaning of personal freedom, I’ve so far stayed clear of political issues, preferring to focus on the power of conscious living. Despite living in Thailand most of the year and enjoying progressive Seattle in the summers, because I remain a U.S. citizen, I am still in servitude to a […]
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