I’m William. I live on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. I remodel houses for a living, I built a disc golf course out here, and I’m a father to a three-year-old who doesn’t need a single thing I’m chasing.
I spent about a decade drinking and keeping myself busy. Busy is a good place to hide, and I hid there a long time. Somewhere in climbing out I found the Stoics. They didn’t save me. But they helped.
What this is
This blog is a document of chaos. It’s where I practice the craft in public. I publish as I write so there’s a record of the growth. Read the first post and then the tenth and it’s a different writer. That was the whole point.
Some of it is philosophy. Some of it is a dog I had to let go. Most of it is me working out, on the page, how to be the person I keep saying I’ll be. I haven’t broken any new ground. What I’ve found is that philosophy is fun, history is cool, and I mostly know what I should be doing.
I don’t think you cross a line and become a good man. You accumulate him over time, and you can corrupt him again over time.
Where to start
On Evil, Post 1: No One Does Evil Willingly. It’s the series where I learned to write.
The series
On Evil: I set out to pin down what people mean when they call something evil. The question changed as I worked it, and so did I. It’s the first project I committed to starting and finishing.
I Remain Steady: That was going to be the title of the self-help book I didn’t finish. I kept the name and dropped the advice. Less telling you how to live, more figuring out how I do. These are the longer pieces, where I turn the questions on myself.
Ten Cent Sophist: The Greeks had a word for men who argued well and charged for it. This is the discount version. A thought for breakfast, short on purpose and written fast on purpose. Whatever I’m thinking that morning, worth about ten cents.
Back Roads: Where I started. Pulled from a self-help book I never finished, back when I thought fixing myself was the thing to write about. It was true when I wrote it.
Reimagining Time: Once a year, at the start of the year, I write about time. Read them in order and you’ll see the writer change along with the thinking. It’s a long project, and time is the subject and the evidence.
New posts on Wednesdays. If something lands, leave a comment or hit reply on the email. I’d like to know someone’s out there.
Plain truth. Rough edges. No polish.
— W. Francis