Spring has arrived after a surprisingly mild winter in Beijing and I’m undertaking a big cleanup. Out with the tired old social media platforms, in with simplified and meaningful communication from one friend to another. What is also going out is my current full-time big city job. I’ll soon return to a more free-form life in Yunnan – embracing simplicity once again. I’m in the process of cleaning out my apartment and going back to a more nomadic life. And what is it we see there on the faraway horizon – another big bicycle journey?

De-shittification

I won’t go into the details of what I think of the political turmoil around the world. The seismic changes, the aggressive rhetoric, the nasty ideologies – they have of course affected me. And made me want to clean up. Consider my personal choices – where and how do I direct my energy and money?

For too long I’ve felt obliged to stay on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Sadly, these once-functioning platforms have deteriorated badly. This is a deliberate result of money-grabbing tech bros, as Cory Doctorow explains elegantly in his theory of enshittification. It’s all sponsored content these days and mind-blowingly dumb ultrashort videos vying for attention. The unease with these modes of connection has been growing until it got to this point: I’ve had enough. I don’t want to see this. I don’t want my content to generate money for the owners of these platforms, who actively support ideologies that I abhor.

So, out with Instagram. Facebook went a while ago and I don’t miss it at all. I’m not the only one – this Dark Properties post and this one titled Nothing to say are both thought-provoking musings on (dis)connect.

Back to blogging it is. For the last two years I didn’t feel that there was much to write home about. The rest of this year, and the next, will provide plenty of food for thought. And hopefully enjoyable reads for you, my dear friends.

Clean

This tidying up of my online and offline life coincides with me celebrating two and a half years of sobriety. This is one of the best things I have ever done for myself. It’s not always easy. I miss having an escape from reality, from my own thoughts. I guess scrolling social media was a surrogate of sorts. But, the great benefit of sobriety lies exactly in this inevitability of having to deal with your own emotions. Meaning that inevitably you’ll have to draw conclusions and make choices. Job not nice? You quit. It’s not easy to leave a well-paying job behind. But I’m being true to myself, and I feel good.

Re-sourcing

What is it that I do want? Apart from world peace and an end to the extreme inequality created by hyper-capitalism that is. It really is all about embracing simplicity. I want to drink tea in a quiet house in the morning. To have a good conversation with a friend. To read books and to write them. I want to travel and enjoy the spontaneous connections made on the road – people really are lovely. To hear silence. I want to get rained on. Most of all, I want my frazzled focus back on a simple track. I really miss the way my brain worked in the 90’s, before the internet came along. Or the way it worked on the big bicycle journey. Eyes on the horizon and mind on the next meal, the next camping spot.

I’ve saved up and will return to Yunnan and take the rest of the year to write a book. For that project I will need all the silence and focus and inspiration and great conversations I can get.

In the spring of next year I want to start traveling back to Europe, by train and by bicycle. I hope to arrive in Vondelpark in Amsterdam on my birthday. It will be ten years since I left, closing this wide and wonderfully adventurous circle by cycling back.

After that, I have no idea. I hope to stay connected to China somehow. To find a way to move between Europe and China. To create something meaningful in the form of stories, connections, projects… I’m confident something will emerge.

I hope you are keeping well in these turbulent times. Let me know if you’d like to catch up. Take care!