The Sign of Four and Corners of The World That Do Not Exist

Sherlock Holmes meets Don Quixote: A reflection on The Busymind Project @ Four.

Time is magic. But most importantly, time works on good wine. And for today’s post—first in almost two weeks—I will be reflecting on what time has done on me and The Busymind Project.

First, I see it now that what inspired me to start The Busymind Project has not changed. By change I mean “become something else.” Contrarily, it has changed by becoming the better version of the same thing. To instantiate this, I point you to one of my previous essays: How To Make Your Job and Day Interesting.

In that beloved essay—with the whooping sum of 8 likes, I used Moses’s picture at the backsides of Sinai to demonstrate how a curious mind and life is ingredient to what may otherwise be a dull and drudging task. And for many people such is the complaint; that life is dull and drudgy. For the spectacle of a bush that burns but does not get consumed is the magical or spectacular show that pulls us out of that daily routine of silly bleating sheep and hot rocky deserts. However, at the time of writing, I could not write it that way. I wrote what I meant as best as I could muster thus: “The good thing about oiling your curious engine is the ability to spot life changing ideas, materials, and experiences with ease. What are you doing with your curiosity?” Two years later, how would I rewrite this?

Holmes, Panza, and Quixote working a case.

Before I show you the rewrite, I present to you that what I meant then and what I mean now have stayed the same. What has changed—or rather improved—is my ability to capture what I mean; but even more especially, the taste that forces this ability to fruition. What I meant then and still mean now is that with a curious mind, you can escape the ordinariness of mundane things; thus that you should pursue your curiosity. That with a curious mind and a rich intellectual life, you can cast spells so that your mundane world can come alive; to make chairs worthy of Jesus and make stones praise God by making them into cathedrals—only if you have a rich mind. I meant so then and I mean it now. Here below, you see my rehashing of Moses and the burning bush.

I wrote in an unpublished draft: 

“Imagine that you are a shepherd in the hot deserts at the backside of Mount Sinai. Then amidst your sheep bleating like the Twitter mob, you hear a bush cackling—like a certain vice president. Bored with your Twitter mob, you turn aside to find out what is going on with Madam Vice President. Perhaps bushes burn in the desert all the time or vice presidents cackle all the time. It matters less. You just need a spectacle. But then you find a sight. A bush burning. But that bush is not consumed. I imagine your first words, as will be mine, to be something like “odd,” “that’s weird,” “interesting,” and my favorite: “what do you have there?” (To which the burning bush responds “a smoothie".)”

This to me, is the onward strides I wanted to see. And I am grateful. Grateful for time that brews both talent and effort to delight the taste buds of a curious young man. I am grateful that today 24th October, as you are reading this, marks my fourth year of writing The Busymind Project. It has been four years of growth and gratitude. Four years of feeling alive amidst the silence and echoes of the silence and the cheers and the echoes of the cheers. Four years of clanking away at the keyboard in the hopes that someone in the corridor enjoys the sound of me slapping on the QWERTY box. Thank you reader, for enduring me.

Perhaps not all of you know but Busyminds did not start on Substack. I launched on Wordpress. Although my first essay came three days later where—as I now see it in hindsight—I unleashed my inner Montaigne, I only wrote because I was bored and wanted to be like Sherlock Holmes. And speaking of Sherlock Holmes, I have titled my fourth year anniversary essay The Sign of Four as a nod and a honour to that fictional inspiration. An aspiration, as every bored child learns, is quixotic.

Upon reflecting on this auspicious occasion, I remind myself that The Busymind Project is the result of an impractical foolishness in the pursuit of unrealisable ideals. As a certain Tweeter puts it: “one danger with reading books and watching movies as a kid is you may spend your adulthood looking for corners of the world that do not exist.” To which I offer a heavy nod as true; seeing that I did begin looking for corners of the world where I might find a Sherlock Holmes. “Quixotic” does not get more aptly described than Frye did in that tweet. 

Benedict CumberHolmes meets Dude in metal suit

Ironically, that tweet became, inadvertently, that corner of the world that “does not exist.” For people who are looking for that corner of the world quickly camped there and provided sumptuous responses. Like this one from Simon Sarris: “Books lead me to believe that there are interesting people to be found. And proof that ghosts walk among us. Long gone authors cannot see us, but we can see them. Finishing a book can be a strange sorrow, because I won’t ever be able to reach them, despite their influence.” What a way to think about the world and to in a few words, create the corner of the world that does not exist. I have uttered similar words in Why I am An Essayist: “I know I have read something valuable when I find more questions; things to make me pause and think; things to enrich my inner life; not solutions but problems to battle with. Yet, I leave delighted and sad. Delighted because I am richer, sad because I never want to leave. I know I have read something valuable when, rather than merely being grateful that my questions are answered, I am inspired to be creative and valuable.” I know I am in the presence of a true and ghostly curiosity when what it stirs in me is not only knowledge but imaginative aspiration.

Still camping under Frye’s post is Visakan Veerasamy. He writes thus: “In some ways, my life's work is abt assembling a sort of tavern for psychonauts, explorers, wanderers, vagabonds, tinkerers, polymaths; I set out to make it myself, trusting that others would be looking for it too.” And that is what defines a creator: to make out what you think you need that does not yet exist. It is by looking for the corners of the world that do not exist that those corners themselves are made. This is the power of an imaginative curiosity which I encourage everyone to pursue.

Bearded Holmes meets Grumpy Quixote

So, The Busymind Project has been exactly that—looking for and deliberately, as well as accidentally creating the corners of the world that do not exist. Whether I have been successful thus far, I cannot say objectively. There is still so much I can do. But what I know is that I love and enjoy the journey so far and I may not want it any other way.

With all that said, I must credit everyone who has been a part of this project passively and actively. I say a big thanks to my close friends who have endured the horrors I brought before their eyes to read. I thank my parents for not dismissing this enterprise. I thank you the reader who either reads consistently or pops in once in a while to see “what is even happening over there.” I am at your mercy. I especially thank David’s Perell and everyone from Write of Passage Cohort 10 and Dan Foster and everyone from Foster Season 3: The Artisan’s Way. I am forever grateful for the opportunities they gave me which propelled my journey onward. Thank you all.

Grumpy Holmes with Fine boy Quixote

With over one hundred and fifty (150) essays published across Wordpress, Medium, and Substack, my corner has started to take shape. It has started taking shape as I have written a draft of the introduction to my book which I wish to title A Curious Book of Spells. Read the excerpt below to glean an idea of its subject:

This book is an effort to make you see the world in a richer light. To make the mundane become extraordinary. To make the things in your pocket worth fighting wars for. To feel like a child again in all its perpetual magic. To stand and delight in garlic; to see your wife made happy by a coconut; and most importantly, to find the cures to worst diseases because of a maddening love for bananas. It is in fact, a curious book of spells.

I wish to avoid the risk of multiplying too many words from hereon. I only have this to say: if you consider The Busymind Project worth your time and mind, please join me in pursuing your curiosity. Join me in gazing at the burning bush. Join me in looking for the corners of the world that do not exist. Join me in this foolishly impractical quest. Be there. Gracias.