The Alchemist From New Hampshire
To live as one with the world, not as one above it, is the goal.
Thought does not end at thought. It ends with deed. If fully lived and well done, it results in embodiment. That is why I am delighted to write about Simon Sarris. He has done for me the most honorable thing a thinker can do: live according to his teachings.
I don’t remember how I first came to meet Simon. What I remember is that he did a hard job of articulating the problems of disembodiment in a clear, beautiful, and idiosyncratic style. Like Blaise Pascal in Pensees, “When we see a natural style, we are astonished and delighted; for we expected to see an author, and we find a man.” Simon Sarris is a man.
It is ‘the man’ that has made thinking and doing beautiful to me. Where many fantasize about a past removed from modernity’s woes and lament what could have been, he seems to be living the best of both times; combining modern technology with more hands-on-earth approach to building a life. In that sense, Simon is eccentric.
From his photography exhibited in the pictures of his family, to the black screen of code as he builds a social network software — Grotto, to poetry references in his writings, to building and designing a home from scratch, Simon Sarris is “Trad Twitter” incarnate. Yet, he has never claimed to be “trad.” With no record of him claiming that label he makes it a reality that one can live a life that is tethered to something stable and real, while removed from the gaseous toxicity of modern life. A labourers much as a mystic, he enjoys the best of both worlds. And what is best for me, he knows G.K Chesterton — the trait of a sound mind.
His contribution to my life includes stirring my love to do and work with my hands. I now approach house chores with a philosophy of being one with the world. And in terms of thinking, he revives — always — in me the need to recover one’s agency, acknowledge the mystical, and create.
If any of those items resonate with what you want, I have a few essays from Simon that could be a starting point for you. Here goes:
In Praise of The Gods:
While reading this essay I was all “Yes! yes! yes!”
Argumentative, it focused my perspective on the things that are hard to say because of either two reasons: (1) the measured ambiguity not always supplied by common language; (2) the fear of appearing insane to regular folks where you will be accused of loving superstitions. Yes, that’s hard.
All the same, my favorite takeaway from this essay allows the thesis to be transmitted. He writes, “Virtue lies in giving things their proper place. To lack reason is to be inhuman. To rely on it solely is to be disembodied.” To live as one with the world, not as one above it, is the goal.
If you are curious to know the place of wonder in a plastic world, this essay is a good place to start. And beyond making you do anything specific (you know, we often get hung up waiting for actionable tips), this piece makes you think. Doing may start from thought.
Long Distance Thinking:
Where everyone begs for knowledge to be tractable and handed down — which often requires stripping and oversimplification, Simon Sarris simply says “The knowledge of a carpenter is in his hands. The apprentice must work with his own to discover it.” And that is a big one. There is no other way.
Skills are not transferable; including the meta-skill of learning. You must embody knowledge via doing. No amount of teaching it as you would to a 6-year-old changes that. You will, by reading this essay, come to confront Albert Einstein (or whoever put those words in his mouth) with the fact that perhaps 6-year-olds are just about smart and dumb enough for their age. Let’s wait until they grow and then we will teach them what they need to know. Until then, we will talk to the adults in the room like they are adults.
Read what Long Distance Thinking is and start appropriating its benefits in your life.
Start With Creation:
The pattern I see around me is that everyone shies from starting with creation. All the advice seems to be “get someone to teach you first.” I hardly see advice to start out first and then find who can help you next. Myself, I started writing first before I started looking for any advice on how to write. In fact, I preserved my first blog post in its raw form as memorabilia of what was.
Feedback and all advice come alive when you have interacted with raw material. I wish just like Simon, “to learn like an apprentice with no fixed master, instead with repeated trial and sharing the results. If no teacher is found along the way, then the mistakes will be my teacher. Every undertaking is a series of questions and experiments.”
Fun is in the doing. Mentorships are effective when your hands are already working the wheel. Friend, start with creation. And read the piece here.
The Most Precious Resource is Agency:
Do you believe that some people say that we should pay kids for performing chores in their parents’ houses? That to me is false and pernicious. You may not be able to explain things to a 6-year-old child. But you can make a 6-year-old child operate as a member of the world and society by teaching them to handle responsibility fit for his age.
We build agency by taking responsibility. We relinquish agency by abdicating responsibility. However, abdicating responsibility does not always look like idleness. Sometimes it looks like inertia in motion. Oxymoronic, I know.
The idea is to make kids do it so that they can keep on doing without being told what to do. Whoever waits for others for every little task, however much we love obedience and submission, eventually irritates us. In that sense, inertia in motion is like an entity going at an act without a distinct vitality. This capacity to flourish in doing is agency. “Gaining agency is gaining the capacity to do something differently from, or in addition to, the events that simply happen to you.” — Simon Sarris
These are so far my favorite pieces from a thinker who is also a doer; a refreshing combination. Please, subscribe to his Substack here, and follow him on Twitter here.
In all sincerity, I am glad I am able to show you his essays that worked for me.
And just in case you are discouraged with honest work, please be strengthened by the words of Dave Brandt (1946-2023):
Wonderfully written post--and thanks for the great quote by Pascal!