Several factors have conspired recently to slow down my pace of posting. Not only have I been working through a difficult and distracting family matter, but I've been questioning some of my existing commitments. Among other things, I've decided to conclude my philosophical coaching and startup advising activities. Although these were intriguing experiments and I enjoyed working with several people, I have my doubts about how truly helpful I was; more generally, I doubt that I am cut out for the helping professions. As a result, I'll be shutting down my philosopher.coach website and in the future posting only at stpeter.im (however, I won't rule out a move to Substack, at least for some of my mid-length writings).
Progress on my Aristotle book continues, but that has slackened, too. Because my powers of attention have been weak and scattered, all I've been doing of late is mindlessly typing passages from Aristotle's works into my searchable collection of book and article summaries. This will set me up for success six or twelve months from now when I expect to start writing in earnest, but it's not an inherently fulfilling task. C'est la vie.
On the plus side, to stay calm during this somewhat stressful time I've been engaging in my favorite form of meditation: playing guitar. I've been learning the Trois Gymnopédies of Erik Satie as arranged for classical guitar and, even better, I'm composing a short piece inspired by Satie (which I'm calling Gymnosophie #1 in honor of the "naked wise men", likely early Buddhists, that Pyrrho and Alexander the Great visited in northwestern India 2300+ years ago). This piece started out as a simple essay in the Dorian mode but is gradually morphing into an exploration of harmonic ambiguity à la Fauré and Satie, with travels to distant keys and an eventual return to the home key of D. I'm not yet sure if it will come together successfully, but I've been enjoying the unhurried musical journey.
(Cross-posted at philosopher.coach.)