Weekly Wisdom from Karen
By: Karen Madej
Tags: Minimalism, Writing, Pandemic, Culture, Satire

You know the wisdom doesn’t come from me, right? All I do is read through articles and choose the ones that resonate with me and match up with the tag of the week.

For your eyeballs this week we go from minimalist living to an underground society of outlaws. I threw in a bit of mask-wearing as it seemed to fit nicely with outlaws and finished off with writing, hustling, and side-busting entertainment.

Noah Levy is a minimalist, a life-changing activity involving less. I’m all for it. What about you?

The way that I see it, there’s are an overarching principle of minimalism that should be addressed. It’s ownership: we must take responsibility for our actions and outcomes of those actions. This means being more conscious of our choices and behavior.

I don’t want to imagine a culture such as the one that exists in Moroccan society. I was stunned when I read the backwards thinking of a court adhering to archaic laws.

From a cultural perspective, every pregnant single woman turns into a scarlet letter. That’s why women insist on getting an abortion without even giving a second thought to such a significant decision. It’s their life on the line.

Zul Bal makes very good points in her discussion on mask-wearing.

In the U.S., COVID 19 has claimed over 154,000 lives since the beginning of this year partly because it received political leeway to roam freely. The infection rate continues to spiral upward. Still we fight over wearing masks as if it is a political issue rather than a matter of life and death.

Emily-Jane Rafferty enlightens us with her experience of the pandemic. She uses reading and writing to cope with the strains 2020 has brought and her grief over her exciting lost future. With the advent of the vaccine, I sincerely wish all Millenials a brighter future than the one they had mapped out pre-COVID-19.

I believe the societies and cultures we experienced in the lead up to this historical year, will force us to change the way we look at ourselves and who and what we hold dear.

I don’t know about you, but the last few months I have truly made the most of my Medium membership. I have found myself reading and reading and still longing for content that I can relate to — content that can help me understand the correlation between world events and my own personal fears and emotions that seem amplified.

What do hustle culture, hard work, productivity, Twitter, and Jack Dorsey have in common? I went straight past this article several times thinking who is he and why should I care about Jack Dorsey’s diet? Shivendra Misra offers true wisdom on the balance of our work and life cultures. I was so impressed by his words, I bought his book, Bend Reality. There’s no commission involved, promise!

We’ve been conditioned for a long time to believe what success looks like and what it takes to get there. And when someone successful does not fit in that definition, everyone goes crazy.

The exception to my own rule, where followers are concerned, and an exceptional writer has to be included as an added reader bonus.

Most Entertaining Story

To finish off this week’s gems on various cultures and prompt next weeks’ subject, I couldn’t resist this scandalous piece from a top writer, Sabana Grande!

There are certain features that I feel this platform is lacking. Sorry Medium, but I’ve had enough. After giving this some thought I’ve decided to come forth with it. My numerous letters to the Medium corporation were rejected, surprisingly. I think they just don’t know what’s best for the platform. I do.

Join me next Sunday for more weekly wisdom from up and coming writers on ILLUMINATION.