Camera: iPhone 15
Location: One World Trade Center; New York, New York
One World Trade Center Observatory
Enjoying the views of the greatest city in the world, New York City, from the observatory deck at One World Trade Center.
Author: Ben W.
Hello, I am an Entrepreneur in Online Education focusing on English as a Second Language Studies. I offer online courses and eBooks on English grammar, Business English, and English writing. I also recently released my first personal development guide.
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Why It’s Important to Romanticize Life a Little (While Not Losing Your Grip on Reality)
“When I say romanticize life, it’s about choosing a balance between being aware of suffering and cruelty in all its forms but not letting it steal our joy or every drop of beauty we should experience during our short time we are living on this planet.”
A star-filled sky, a sunset that looks like a colorful painting come to life, a delicious cup of coffee on a patio or rooftop, a smile from a stranger, or a song that just puts you in a good mood; romanticizing life itself is important to maintaining one’s contentedness. Romanticizing life itself isn’t about deluding oneself about the ills of our troubled world or denying that life has its problems, but it’s about choosing meaning, joy, and pleasure in a chaotic thing that we call existence. When I say romanticize life, it’s about choosing a balance between being aware of suffering and cruelty in all its forms but not letting it steal our joy or every drop of beauty we should experience during our short time we are living on this planet.
What does it mean exactly to romanticize life itself? For me, it’s about viewing life not only through its troubles, struggles, and effort, but also about embracing wonder in all its forms, keeping your imagination going, and living life with intention to observe joy and be appreciative of being able to exist in this moment. Being able to romanticize life does not come easy and we can lose track of how precious life really is. However, you can appreciate life more when you’re able to enjoy the small rituals and little moments that bring you a sense of calm and contentedness.
Maybe it’s your morning coffee or your daily walk around the neighborhood. If you’re a parent, maybe it’s the sound of your child’s laughter or if you’re married, your partner smiling at you. In those precious moments, you are left with a sense of what the good stuff in life is and that it can be good. You know those moments don’t last forever so it’s important to recognize them when they happen and to find enjoyment in them. I also think romanticizing life is about embracing yourself as the ‘main character’, which I have written about in a previous article. Being able to embrace new places, new foods, new cultures, and new adventures can give your life much more volume of good memories, meaningful connections, and some amazing stories to tell upon your return.
Life isn’t perfect and neither is your own, but it’s important to remind yourself daily of the good stuff even if it’s minor things in your routine and daily rituals. Even if life seems bad, I always think there’s the ‘little’ things in life to be grateful for and to remind yourself of what to be fortunate for even if things can look bleak at times. Romanticizing life matters even more in today’s world in my view. Modern life is designed to overwhelm us seemingly everyday and can drain our joy completely if we are not careful.
A lot of us are burnt out from work, overstimulated by 24/7 news cycles, and overwhelmed by the technological change going on around us. Romanticizing life is not about ignoring these changes going on around us but to remember exactly why life is still beautiful and how to find out what inspires us, moves us, and allows us to embrace the good things in our world.
It is also a good antidote to apathy, nihilism, and numbness to the problems in our society because remembering the good things in life and what’s worth fighting for. We cannot control the world or right every wrong, but we can control how we experience and move through the world in our own way. Being able to romanticize life and the good it can offer us encourages positive feelings of gratitude, mindfulness, and presence especially when there are so many distractions around that can cause us to lose sight of what we really should be focusing on.
While I advocate for romanticizing life, I’ll never shy away from acknowledge the pain and suffering we all inevitably go through in life. However, we cannot let ourselves be consumed by the pain we experience or seek to escape reality in unhealthy ways. Remember to be able to hold the good and the bad of life in you, the joy and the grief, stress and peace, happiness and sadness.
Don’t romanticize life to escape your problems or the pain you experience but instead use it as a tool to ground yourself, to have perspective, and to think in a more balanced way rather than ‘everything is terrible’ or ‘everything is perfect.’ For some examples of this you may experience in life, you can still pay your bills and light a candle for a nice dinner in the same day. You can still enjoy Paris while it’s raining down on you and you’re late for a tour. You can still have a bad day and still journal your thoughts down while being grateful for the good things you have in your life overall.
As the famous philosopher Albert Camus once wrote, “There is no love of life without despair of life.” To me, this quote represents that you can still be in touch with life’s beauty and joy without being broken by the pain and sorrow you experience that’s a part of life too. This is the kind of perspective that you should be cultivating like Mr. Camus in that you need to be romanticizing the ordinary and mundane of life and to find some beauty in it if you can.
How to do this exactly? Well, I like to write and observe to romanticize and find joy in the world. For others, it could be reading literature, watching films, or learning about art. Even better than that is to create these types of output yourself and to collaborate and work with others because building out human connection through these endeavors makes life more enjoyable and makes it easier to romanticize it all.
Romanticizing life does not mean broadcasting for the world every photo you take, every meal you consume, or every sunset you enjoy. It’s about living in the moment, not being performative or fake about what you experience, and taking the time to really embrace beauty wherever it can be found. It’s about being intentional in how you embrace life, little by little, the good and the bad. You need to have perspective in that things are never as bad as they seem nor as good as they seem. Romanticizing life is not about pretending bad things don’t exist or that good things don’t exist, but it’s about believing in that there is good in the world still and it’s worth taking pleasure in.
If you’re into romanticizing life through travel and adventure, do more of that, and for others it could be the comfort of family and friends, while others can do it more simply with watching the passing of a cloud or the blossoming of a flower, you need to find one small way each day to bring some good energy to your life and to uplift oneself when you can. Life is not meant to be an endless grind where we are meant to struggle endlessly without taking some time to reflect, be present, embrace beauty when we see it, and to live life with as much passion as you can muster when we find things worth enjoying, both big and small, both random and planned, and above all else, reminds us that while life can be tough, it can also be beautiful too.
Back In The New York Groove
A trip back to New York City in March of 2024.
Camera: iPhone 15
Location: New York, New York
Anatomy of a Scene – ‘How you been, ya know, besides work?’ (True Detective)
“However, they both are excellent detectives, dedicated to solving crimes, and are each other’s yin and yang by keeping the other one honest.”
True Detective, Season 1 on HBO aired over ten years ago but it’s still regarded as one of the best TV drama seasons of all time. Part of its lore lies in its storyline and direction, but a lot of credit also should go to the lead actors, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. The two actors who play Rustin ‘Rust’ Cohle and Martin ‘Marty Hart’ respectively do an excellent job of showing these actors at different periods in their lives and careers as detectives with the Louisiana State Police. Both men appear to be opposites at the start and the friction(s) that they have intensify over the year. However, they both are excellent detectives, dedicated to solving crimes, and are each other’s yin and yang by keeping the other one honest.
Few shows since that season of True Detective or the seasons of the popular anthology series since the 1st season with Rust and Marty have achieved the same level of on-screen chemistry and presence. It helps that off-screen both actors are close friends and have known each other for decades. They’ve been quoted as almost being like ‘brothers’ sharing the same sense of humor, profession, and having different hobbies in common. While True Detective with Marty and Rust happened over ten years ago, there are rumors swirling around that both characters could come back in the future for another story by showrunner Nic Pizzolatto.
One scene on the show that really sums up their rocky relationship and occurs later in their troubled careers. Not only do they have unfinished business with each other in terms of reconnecting and perhaps getting over their troubled past but also to attend to possibly solving a murder mystery central to the season’s plot. At this point in the season, they are older, not on the force anymore as detectives, and life has both affected them in different ways including estranging them from their former family and friends.
Marty Hart, for example, is balding, lives alone after separating from his now ex-wife, and doesn’t have sole custody of his daughters anymore. He doesn’t cook much (it’s implied), likes to fish for a hobby, has trouble finding purpose in his current job, and has resorted to online dating (unsuccessfully so far) even though he insists it’s ‘casual’, but likely wants to have a new relationship via Match.com. Rust Cohle, has grown his hair and beard out, looks a bit older due to his smoking and drinking habit, owns a bar in rural Louisiana, is isolated but does seem to enjoy the quiet of living by himself and spending time watching the sunset each night while drinking a beer.
You can tell by the montage of this scene in the show that as the years gone by, they’ve lost connection not only to their purpose and to each other, but also to what made truly worth living. They may have other jobs and maybe some other things keeping them going, but they miss the work they did, the past relationships they squandered, and even each other begrudgingly.
While the montage showing them settling into middle age monotony may be unsettling, the short scene does give them a chance to reconnect again, get to know each other on a personal level outside of detective work, and work together to find a purpose again. In this case, there’s a murder mystery to solve and they cannot do it by themselves. Since they both are single, one divorced and the other non-committal to it, seemingly estranged from their current work and lacking purpose, they need each other ten years later more than they could ever know.
Life can get lonely without friends or family but especially if there’s no one around to help you find your purpose. I think that’s why this scene is so key within the show is that it shows Marty and Rust may feel like they’re alone, but they do have each other despite their past differences. Sometimes, you must go through some solitary times in life to find out what you really want to do or who you really want to spend your time with. Rust knows he is alone as the scene makes clear, but he has made peace with the loneliness even if he might wish for a girlfriend or a friend to drop by the bar after it closes. Marty had a marriage and a good relationship with his children but unfortunately, he was not able to balance it with his work life and his infidelity.
The scene’s montage shows the years have been a bit hard on Marty as he tries to rekindle what he once had but being unsuccessful at doing so. The montage shows you just how precious our situation can be with work, with love, and with family, and that you can’t go back and change the past. As much as you might wish to catch lightning in the bottle twice as is the case with Marty in terms of finding love or companionship, sometimes, those second chances never come around. The fact that they each have each other in their lives again, even with their storied pasts, is a good thing and shows that they still have an innate purpose regarding their work as detectives and that they are better off working together than being apart. In time, they will get back their skillset, work to solve the case, and even become friends again, which can help put their loneliness at bay.
While this scene of them living isolated lives may be looked on as depressing, I think it is a realistic look at how life can get as you get older. You may have to deal with periods of loneliness or getting swept up in a routine that grows stale. However, it’s important to remember for all of us watching is that life throws us curveballs sometimes and you never know who will appear in your life again or what kind of purpose and worth you can find in the most unlikely of places. For Marty, it was seeing Rust’s trust again on the road after ten years as they drove on the same road, and there was more to their story together, and they think they were both happy to find each other again and work towards getting their sense of purpose back together.
A Visit to McGill University
Checking out one of Canada’s most famous and historic universities, McGill University in Downtown Montreal on a Winter’s day.
Camera: iPhone 15
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada; McGill University
My Second Attempt at English Poetry (June 2025)
My second attempt at writing English poetry and covering different topics such as the open road, nature, love, summertime, and the stillness of life.
1. Silence on the Open Road in Iceland
No horns, no hurry, no traffic rush, just endless sky,
Lava fields hush as the glaciers sigh.
Each mile whispers what words cannot say,
The road and I just slip away.
2. The Peace and The Quiet
No noise, no news, no fuss, only my breath and the calm breeze.
The world exhales at once, putting me at ease.
In stillness, truth begins to speak,
The loudest peace is soft and sleek.
3. The Majesty of Nature
Snowcapped Mountain peaks glimmer far and wide,
Wild rivers roar and tumble with pride.
Bold explorers yearn for each high crest,
to leave a mark, and to pass the test.
Bow to the wind, the sky, the flame,
this wild world remembers your name.
4. Summer Breeze
My warm hands go across your soft skin, a flirty tease, a calming sense of ease,
salt, sand, and sun felt in a lazy breeze.
Time forgets to check the clock,
Summer sighs and slips its lock.
5. My Blue-Eyed Baby
Your blue eyes flash, like a new day’s dawn, Pure joy and glee I see, you could never do wrong.
One smile, the world turns sweet and slow,
you’ve got that magic, baby, don’t you know?
Murals and Markets in Montreal
Walking around the various neighborhoods of Montreal to check out street murals and also stop in to Jean-Talon Market for a visit and some Poutine.
Camera: iPhone 15
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Jean-Talon Market
How Iceland Replenishes the Mind, Body, and Soul
“Iceland is one of those countries that can combine stunning landscape contrasts with sheer natural beauty, putting the average traveler at ease and offering you unique opportunities to rejuvenate physically, mentally, and spiritually through its landscapes, culture, and way of life.”
Few places on Earth these days can put you in supremely natural environments for which you can really feel at ease in nature that has been properly conserved and taken care of. You can be far away from technology, city life, and cover a wide variety of landscapes in just a few hours. Iceland is one of those countries that can combine stunning landscape contrasts with sheer natural beauty, putting the average traveler at ease and offering you unique opportunities to rejuvenate physically, mentally, and spiritually through its landscapes, culture, and way of life.
It hits you the moment to fly into Keflavik International Airport like you stepped on to a new planet that is both desolate but alluring in its other worldly landscapes. You see the molten rocks, the green moss, and the blue lagoons, and think to yourself, where did I just end up? The whole country can captive you on a trip like few others can by offering ways to put your mind, body, and soul at ease. Away with the office, away from the hustle and bustle, and able to tap fully into nature and your surroundings like few other places I’ve ever been to personally.
Being able to hike, swim, kayak, rock climb, and engage in a variety of other outdoor activities throughout the year makes Iceland a physical playground to enjoy. You can rest or exert yourself or do both to give your body a healthy experience on top of being able to put your mind at ease by being away from your devices by tapping into your natural surroundings because they are just that engaging and varied. Iceland provides your soul a reset where you can forget your own troubles and that of the world’s for a while to focus on feeling better, relaxing, or living in the moment, and experiencing what it is to be disconnected.
When it comes to reinvigorating yourself physically, you have a wide variety of ways to do so while in Iceland. You can enjoy a large variety of geothermal pools and hot springs such as the Blue Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Sky Lagoon, etc. In the Summer months, there are also several pools around the country that may be open to the public including tourists to relax and enjoy the long summer nights, where daylight is every present. After having partook in a few lagoon visits in my recent trip, I can say for sure that your body feels cleaned and refreshed after soaking in the mineral-rich waters and combining that with the country’s culture of saunas, steam houses, and the occasional cold plunge.
It is an impressive combination of thermal relaxation letting you fully destress and decompress for a few hours but with residual health benefits for months or years to come. In addition, Iceland prides itself on healthy, local, and pesticide-free cuisine from fresh seafood to Skyr yogurt, as well as farm-to-table and greenhouse-to-table dishes. As mentioned earlier, there are tons of outdoor activities promoting physical health such as hiking, golfing, swimming, horseback riding, and rock climbing among others.
Everyone needs peace and quiet in their life and Iceland provides that in spades. I believe the country can nourish the mind by allowing you to bask in the solitude that you can find in Iceland’s varied landscapes from waterfalls, glaciers, black sand beaches, and fjords. There are numerous psychological benefits to disconnect every now and then from modern technology and the stresses of urban life and I felt a lot better not being on my phone during my time in Iceland. Though I did need my phone for photos and GPS, the beautiful surroundings allowed me to put my phone away and really live in the moment to enjoy the gorgeous landscapes I was able to visit.
The pace of life is also much slower in Iceland and there is a cultural emphasis on being mindful, engaging with other people, and slow living. When you drive there, you don’t see road rage, people yield to each other in traffic, and the rules of the road are observed since there is no ‘rushing around’ without end that you find in other cultures. Because of the natural beauty and slower pace of life, there are many more opportunities to reflect and think while enjoying the expansive natural visits. Taking time away from technology and the ‘hustle and bustle’ can allow you to reflect on life and enjoying the moment more fully.
Our soul needs to experience awe and joy. I believe Iceland’s natural phenomena and beauty from the Northern Lights to the Midnight Sun really can provide that to each person who visits. This kind of perspective is reflected in Icelandic sagas, myths, and folklore about having reference for nature, being in touch with those people in your life who matter to you and living in a sustainable or balanced way with nature. Iceland is an extremely environment conscious country and should be commended for being clean, approaching net zero carbon emissions, and working to be sustainable in its relationship with nature.
People in Iceland live in harmony with each other and with nature from what I noticed and are a progressive nation in that they are tight knit, looking out for their neighbors, and want everyone to be lifted in their society. These kinds of actions culturally are good for the soul and the soul of any nation. While the weather can be rather unpredictable, costs can be high to visit, and the lack of sun in the Winter is challenging, Iceland is a spectacularly beautiful and welcoming country that I hope to visit in the future.
Iceland is a holistic country to visit that can really make you better off in mind, body, and soul for having spent some time there. It is a rejuvenating kind of travel experience that I hope you’ll consider giving a chance for yourself. We need these kinds of retreats in life where you have real time to relax, reflect, disconnect and focus on yourself without outside distractions. Whether its soaking in the blue lagoon, hiking on top of a glacier, or going fishing on a charter boat to catch fresh seafood for your next meal, Iceland is a country where you can really be at ease with yourself and the world around you. Take a week or two from your busy schedule and come discover the land of Fire and Ice; I promise you won’t regret it.
Nighttime in Montreal
Walking around Montreal at night to get a feel for the city in the wintertime.
Camera: iPhone 15
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Life, Subscribed: How Everything Became a Recurring Fee
“Welcome to the age of subscriptization: a world where the default mode of engagement is no longer ownership, but ongoing payment(s).”
Okay, not literally everything, but it’s certainly starting to feel that way. Remember that feeling you had as a kid or teenager picking up a compact disc (CD), a DVD, or a book from the local school fair. You paid for it only once and then you owned it for life or if you didn’t sell it to someone else or lose it entirely. I get nostalgic for those days when ownership of items was the priority in this economy. We used to buy things.
Now, we rent or subscribe to experiences, housing, streaming services, and even our identity, one monthly or yearly payment at a time. From software and streaming to meals, mattresses, and meditation, life itself has undergone a quiet revolution from owning to subscribing. Welcome to the age of subscriptization: a world where the default mode of engagement is no longer ownership, but ongoing payment(s).
At first glance, this model seems like a win to anyone. Why drop hundreds upfront on a good or service when you can pay $9.99 a month forever? Subscription services promise convenience, affordability, and flexibility, and they’ve reshaped how we consume as a society. Need entertainment? Subscribe to Netflix. Need groceries? Subscribe to weekly HelloFresh deliveries. Therapy? BetterHelp sessions, available by month or more. Transportation? Try Tesla’s subscription model. It’s not just media and goods anymore; it’s your health, your fitness, your mental well-being, and your relationships.
However, beneath the surface of ease lies a subtler transformation if you haven’t noticed it already, one that touches everything from personal finance to cultural values. Subscriptions create the illusion of choice and control while tethering us to an endless cycle of micropayments that add up over time and can lead to a financial trap. They can fragment our budgets, blur the line between need and want, and slowly chip away at your financial autonomy. When every facet of life comes with a recurring fee or payment, you may never feel “caught up” or always feel like you need to add one more service to make your life more convenient. There’s always one more plan, one more upgrade, one more renewal reminder in your inbox making it harder and harder to unsubscribe entirely.
Beyond our bank statements, the subscription model is rewiring our expectations and sense of satisfaction with our choices. We’ve become conditioned to expect instant access, regular updates, and constant novelty, whether it’s a new show to binge, a wardrobe refresh, or the latest application feature update. That “always something new” mindset can quietly foster impatience, restlessness, and even entitlement. Why wait for anything or stick with something you buy once when everything can be delivered, streamed, or unlocked for a monthly fee? This kind of mindset creates a culture that prizes immediacy over depth, reducing life’s experiences to transactions, and undermining the joy that can come from delayed gratification or from rewarding true craftmanship.
As people, we are also internalizing the logic of subscriptization in how we relate to ourselves and others. Self-improvement has become something you can subscribe to, through fitness applications, meditation platforms, career coaching, or therapy on demand. While these tools have value as subscriptions, they often position growth as something you consume, not something you do. There’s a growing risk that we start seeing our personal progress as another product, measurable, trackable, and cancelable, rather than as a slow, often uncomfortable process that lasts a lifetime.
This recent economic shift also speaks volumes about our societal mindset. In an era marked by career instability and a gig-based economy that more people must participate in to survive and make ends meet, people are more hesitant to commit entirely for the foreseeable future, whether it’s to a car, a house, or a romantic partner. Socially, we now navigate dating and relationships through platforms that resemble subscription services themselves, where matches, friends, or followers can be swiped, upgraded, or ghosted as easily as deleting your Spotify playlist.
The emotional consequences of this wide shift are still unfolding, but the early signs suggest it’s making genuine connection more fragile, and commitment feel optional entirely. Subscriptions cater to our age of societal anxiety, offering an easy way out at any time. Don’t like it? Cancel it. Swipe left. Move on. That same disposability in what we subscribe to may be eroding our sense of permanence, ownership, and investment, in both materialistic and emotional ways.
Meanwhile, companies aren’t just selling services, they’re collecting our data for months and years because of the subscription model. Every subscription is a pipeline of behavioral intelligence; when you watch, what you skip, how often you order, when you’re most likely to purchase. Algorithms then feed this data back into your shopping, dating, or entertainment experience, shaping your preferences before you even know you have them. It’s a form of consumer surveillance masquerading as personal freedom.
The subscriptization of life isn’t inherently evil, but it’s worth examining the consequences of moving more and more to a subscription-only economy. As we increasingly trade ownership for access to services and goods that we need rather than just want, and permanence for flexibility, we must ask ourselves: what are we gaining with this model, and what are we losing? Subscriptions might make life smoother, more convenient, but they can also make it shallower, more transactional, and harder to disconnect from. It is also possible that we end up paying more for these goods and services in the long run every week, month, or year, rather just one-time only.
The question isn’t whether we’ll return to owning everything again as that ship has sailed. In this new economy of access, the challenge is to subscribe with real intention, not out of pure habit. Because if everything is on auto-renew, or there’s no longer a ‘buy now’ option, it might be time to ask: who’s really in control of our choices as consumers?
More importantly, we need to consider what kind of life we’re curating through this endless stream of monthly and yearly commitments. Are we building something lasting or simply paying to keep the lights on in a lifestyle we don’t fully own? The convenience is real, especially for those who benefit from seamless access. However, so is the quiet erosion of autonomy when we outsource our decisions to algorithms, platforms, and plans we barely remember signing up for. At some point, the goal should be more than just temporary access. It must be about intentionally creating meaning, through what we purchase, who we support, and how we contribute. And meaning, as it turns out, isn’t something you can just rent or subscribe to.
