“So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.” — Jorge Luis Borges
Hello, there! My name is Aurora.
What makes a city good?
What is the role of the government?
What is the gap between how our systems are designed and how they are actually experienced?
How do we build systems that are more humane, effective, and just?
I can think about these topics for hours, thoroughly captivated by the possibilities. These are the questions that define my work here, in what I call my mind garden. I’ve spent years tending my intellectual soil, preparing to answer these questions in a profound, world-changing way. But preparation disguised procrastination, and ambition disguised insecurity.1 So now it’s time to take a leap of faith: actively planting seeds, watering ideas, and cultivating answers through writing.2
This isn’t merely a garden of abstract thought. As you wander, you'll discover humanity’s creations amongst God’s: the winding streets, the steamy subways, the commanding skyscrapers. How did these come to be? What was the government’s role in their formation? Do they contribute to genuine human flourishing? What, precisely, is human flourishing?
These are but a few of the questions I encounter as I explore this mind garden—an interconnected space for cultivating ideas and a living workshop for exploring what it means to live out the Gospel. While my focus will likely evolve, for now, you can expect writing that delves into the relationship between government, urban development, and human experience.
If these questions resonate with you—if you’re also curious about how we ought to live together and collectively build a world that uplifts everyone—this space is for you. Step in, find a quiet nook, a much-needed respite from our noisy world. Sit, pause, and resist the urge to perpetually run and produce. In the silence, you just may find the answer to a question of yours.3
What’s on your mind?
This is a new discovery for me… I've found this sentiment wonderfully verbalized in a recent essay: being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage
I find the study of words endlessly fascinating. The word “essay” comes from the French verb essayer, meaning “to try”, and to make an essai is to make an attempt. So I write essays not because I have all the answers, but as an active attempt to work through ideas. As Paul Graham puts it, expressing ideas helps to form them.
