Early morning at "Riverbend". All is quiet, nothing and no-one is awake yet, and so, before the coming day descends into banalities --- "Have you had your breakfast yet?" "How did you sleep?" "Want to go for a walk?" --- I listened again to my favourite modern-day philosopher, Alain de Botton.
He’s written fifteen books, which have become bestsellers in thirty countries, all of which emphasise philosophy's relevance to everyday life. They include "How Proust Can Change Your Life" (1997), "Status Anxiety" (2004), and "The Architecture of Happiness" (2006).
Annoyingly, even this great mind has now bowed to wokism when he prefaced his question about "going out with a woman who make you suffer" [go to 16:40] with "making a heterosexual assumption". Grrr!
Banality has just reared its ugly head. "Have you had your breakfast yet?" Who wants breakfast when there's so much food for thought.
