Fine friends of Caesura,

How are you? No, really — how are you? What are you feeling? What are you thinking? Where are you right now? Sometimes I feel bad about bombarding you with my texts, views, links and other stuff without necessarily checking in with you. But you know that you can hit reply and just let me know what is being up, right?

I am Adil and this is Caesura, a weekly newsletter, that you are theoretically (still) subscribed to — thank you for that. I find that one of the best ways of living sometimes is just let ourselves be. Just exist. Breath. And that’s it. No lists of things to do, no rush, no thoughts, no feelings but empty form filled with nothing — let thoughts and emotions come and go, while remaining a curious yet distant observer without engaging with them. Oh, I am thinking. Huh, I am feeling. Note and just let it go. Get back to just being. Being physically present — feeling the surface, weight, light, warmness, cold, color, smell, taste, whatever it is — just be here.

I find this is the best way to pause and realize that the life is happening. And it is full of wonderful details that we miss in a rush to live. But you do not need rush to live, when you can just be.

🏝 Till the Next One

As I am drinking a hot tea, not coffee, in this gray Budapest autumn, I am remembering the last weekend that I spent in Palma, Mallorca in Spain. The sun was warming my back, the wet air was touching my face, warm wind currents from the Mediterranean Sea were filling my lungs as I was enjoying the view and thinking about how awesome it is to be here. Sensing the sand under my feet. Smelling the salty air. Just to be present.

Luckily, we were not in the city of Palma itself, but in the resorts area in 20 minutes drive from it. The city is as busy as any tourist destination gets. In contrast, the place we stayed in is an anthem of a slow living. The life itself took a pause there. Summer never ended. Birds never flew away to the South. Grass never turned yellow. Days never got shorter. Time never rushed to end.

Apparently, the summer in Palma is for partying, and the autumn is for a chill. With the end of the summer, all partying youth gets back to their 9-to-5s, and Palma refocuses toward a different kind of visitors — older, calmer, seeking refuge from colder days as well as from expensive summer season prices.

At 8AM in the morning, the beachfront is full of those taking long walks, riding bicycles or running. The early morning fog leaves a small drops of water on surfaces before disappearing. It also leaves a fresh cold air to take in and enjoy, before the heat takes over.

Nights were full of neon colors, tasty dishes and olive oils.

I felt grateful to vacay in the place like this. It felt like a long-needed and deserved pause. I jumped out of the busy working week right into a time capsule that preserved the summer and never let it go. We enjoyed every minute and said a final goodbye to the summer on our way back. Till the next one.

📕 What I am Reading — Hemingway Biography

While in Palma, and on the way to and back, I was toxicly consuming Hemingway’s biography book by Michael S. Reynolds. This is the third book by Reynolds on Hemingway’s life that I have read this year. The first one was about the writer’s life in Paris, the next one — coming home from Europe to the US. The one I am currently reading is about his later years, when he already was a cultural icon of his time. In total, Reynolds wrote about 8-10 books on Hemingway’s biography.

Hemingway was a dick, but his life makes for an engaging reading. Especially if you have read all of his books like myself — my favorite being the Sun Also Rises. More importantly though, Reynolds is masterful writer, who turns biography into a form of novel. He often gets into Hemingway’s head and add his own interpretations of the writer’s thinking, but yet keeps consistent with facts. Even more important than this, Reynolds provides voice to so many people that Hemingway mentioned in his works but kept voiceless as a nice background for his male protagonists. Like many wives and friends that dealt with the writer’s jerkness.

Another cool thing that Reynolds do is that he captures the structural context around the writer’s lifetime — global politics, economy and culture that were shaping the time.

I am a fan of Hemingway’s writing style and I bookwormed on most of his works back in my school days. Even in translation, his style is sharp and easily recognizable. My favorite of Reynold’s books on Hemingway is on his Paris years, where Reynolds in details shows the writing process behind Hemingway’s two most famous books - the Sun Also Rises and Farewell to Arms.

Books mentioned:

  • Hemingway: The Paris Years, Michael S. Reynolds

  • Hemingway: The Homecoming, Michael S. Reynolds

  • Hemingway: The 1930s through the Final Years, Michael S. Reynolds

  • The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

  • Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

🚀 Song of the Week

See ya,

Adil.