Volume 7 · The Long Afternoon · Essay 46

Confusopoly

There are ideas that shout. Confusopoly is not one of them. It waits quietly until the day you need it.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Think of the grandfather who plants a mango tree he will never sit under. Ask him why, and he will look at you as if the question were the strange thing.

In the end, life asks only whether we were awake while it happened. If this page made you think of one specific person, do not send it to them. Apply it to yourself first; that is how these things work.