The Monthly Salon: February
News, events, conversation
Lent comes round again
Hello readers, from the first day of Orthodox Lent. The longer I have been an Orthodox Christian, the deeper the meaning of Lent has become. I look forward to it every year now - because of, and not despite, the fasting rules which the Orthodox Church, alone amongst Christian confessions, still maintains in full. Deepening is the meaning of Lent: deepening your faith and your relationship with God. It isn’t really about ‘giving things up’, though it entails that. It’s about shedding unnecessary skins. Each Lent, I walk a little further away from ‘the world’ and its concerns, which also means walking a little further away from my false image of myself, and all of my selfish concerns. Walk far enough away, and there is nothing left to shelter you but the Presence who lies outside the world, and is waiting for you to come home.
Last autumn, in my little podcast series, I interviewed one of my very favourite Orthodox writers, Father Stephen Freeman, a man who combines wisdom, knowledge and down-to-Earth humour in just the right proportions. Here is an essay on Lent which he wrote a few years ago and has just republished. It is well worth a read, wherever you find yourself. I’d welcome your thoughts and stories on all things Lenten below the line.
Venturing into the world
I’m feeling a lot more human than I was at the turn of the year, for which I give thanks. I surprised myself by managing to write my recent 3000 word essay about my AI campaign, and though it tired me out, it didn’t knock me out, which is progress. I’m not feeling fully human again, but I am much better than I was, and I’m confident that I am on the road to recovery, though I’m still going to assume it will take me all year, and I’m taking it slowly.
I’m going to be a lot less public this year than I was in 2025, but I have committed myself to a couple of events in the first half of the year, one here in Ireland, and one in Britain.
Coming up first is the second instalment of the British Saints Convention, taking place in Walsingham, Norfolk, in May. The brainchild of my friends Mariamni and Marcus Plested, who together steward the wonderful St Seraphim’s Trust in Walsingham, it will be a weekend-long gathering themed around the saints of Britain, and the landscapes they made holy. This ancient and holy isle is brimming with saints waiting to be rediscovered in an age which needs them. There will be talks, stories, poetry, conversation and music. I’ll be speaking, as will Rowan Williams, Martin Shaw, Marcus Plested and others. Marcus’s Substack The Orthodox Station gives a bit of a taster of what to expect. You need to buy tickets in advance, and they are limited.
On a very different note, I will also be appearing, in June, at the Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas, in Carlow, Ireland. This is a literary and cultural shindig held in a big house, and I’ll be on stage talking about Against The Machine: the only time I plan to do so in public this year, and only the second time in Ireland. Details and tickets are here.
AI and wood shavings
One of the few interviews I’ve agreed to so far this year was with Mortise and Tenon magazine in Maine, USA. I did so because it’s not just another Substack or website, but an actual magazine about actual hand-made things. M&T is a beautifully-produced family-run periodical by and for hand-tool woodworkers, and it combines practice with philosophy. I was interviewed by them about the Machine and its impacts for their forthcoming issue: you can read about that here. You can only read the full conversation by subscribing to their print journal, though. Take out a subscription before this Friday, 27th, and it will start with this current issue. American woodwork-lovers can do that here, and those outside America here.
What I didn’t expect when I spoke to M&T was how much enthusiasm they would show for my Writers Against AI campaign. Not only have they changed their masthead to incorporate the logo, but they have created an entire website dedicated to the campaign. It features my essay, and a selection of other writers who are already resisting AI in their work. Have a browse - you can find it here - and do spread the word. It is a great landing site for AI refusers. Maybe you have some other names to suggest to them too.
Substack and the Machine
On the subject of websites, I’ve decided I’m not engaging any more with the ‘Notes’ function here on Substack. When I first started writing here five years ago, Substack was a simple, clean online place for mostly thoughtful and often dissident writers and readers. It was blogging, essentially, only a version that writers could make a bit of a living from. These days, Substack is becoming just another social media site, with notes and tweets and hot takes and arguments and culture war drivel flooding through the cracks. It’s a shame, and if it continues I might be heading somewhere else, or nowhere at all.
In the meantime, though, I’m neither going to post any ‘Notes’, nor engage with or read them in the future. I have also shut down the ‘Chat’ facility attached to the Abbey, because it was being spammed, probably by AI bots. Such is the spirit of the age, my friends.
Lonely as a cloud
The antidote to that spirit, of course is - reality. Nature, creation. The outdoors. Wind, rain, animal life, soaring birds, wet grass, and more rain. The good news is that reality is still out there, and isn’t going away. On that note, I am very taken by reader Kamil Trzebiatowki’s new short film about his walking pilgrimage through Britain. As this year progresses I hope to get out there again myself, and restart my Sunday Pilgrimage series here.
You can watch Kamil’s film, and read more about his wanderings, here. He also has a YouTube channel. They may help inspire you as the darkness of winter continues. His next project is a series of films inspired by one of my childhood heroes, the legendary English hillwalker, artist and author Alfred Wainwright. Now there was a man who would have had no time at all for books made by AI.
That’s enough for this month. Enjoy your own winter wanderings, and please do open a conversation below about anything you’d like.
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I'm glad you ditched the "Notes" section, I never look at those anyway. I just want to read the actual work of those I subscribe to, not a bunch "tweet-like" rubbish. :-)
Thank you for Writers Against AI