4 Comments

Alex this is incredible 😭❤️ I am so glad you started this substack. You have words... ! and stories and insights and wisdom and also generosity and lightness. I will return again and again to read this, in fact I’ll be printing it out to put in my fave essays folder. I needed this particular gift of writing today in a way it’s hard to explain. There’s clues in here I still can’t quite grasp but my curiosity is ignited. The amazing thing about metaphor and in particular those that come from te taiao is how much better we can understand ourselves when we are able to witness something external to ourselves so deeply. I don’t have the language or scientific knowledge experience to witness as you have, so thank u for sharing. What an awesome Dad, to answer the questions not with absolutes, but with potential and imagination. Takiwātanga - I hadn’t heard that, but yes. How correct. And so fitting in the context of the monarch’s transformation. Ka Nui te mihi inside all the big things e hoa.

Expand full comment
Dec 23, 2022Liked by Alex Kazemi

Beautiful, Alex. It is funny how we conceive of the journey through a human life. I think subconsciously sometimes I feel that I peaked in my late 30s when I was “truly myself” and at ease in the world (momentarily!) And, ever since it’s been a kind of downhill slide of realising physical and mental limitations and discomfort. And being confronted with our human mortality repeatedly. Of course, that’s not actually true and so many of our potentials only develop more as we get older.

Expand full comment