Hello and I’m sorry to have been away for so long. I’ve been out of action for a few months due to sudden ill health – an experience that really underlined just how dependent we are on our physical bodies. It’s been an interesting time! I lived the cliché about how you never know when you might get run over by a bus, although my body chose a bit more of an unusual surprise to confront me with: a perforated duodenum.

It’s a shame that when you undergo something philosophically interesting like this, your mind isn’t firing all that sharply. So I think the experience – a night of agony in A&E; emergency abdominal surgery; a month of recovery in hospital – is still kind of rumbling underneath my conscious mind, with profound revelations still waiting to come through when they get the chance.

I suppose any severe health shock like this just underlines the things you know on a surface level, but really drives them home: you are mortal; you’re not an exception and it’s very possible that you could die in the middle of things, now, without the universe waiting for you to get things in order or feel ready. What else? Suffering and pain really exist and if they happen to you, you can’t always escape. They’re happening right now within millions of other consciousnesses that you’re not party to. You’re not really in control.

Thankfully, and amazingly, I am well again now, without any lasting effects, and I’m grateful for that. It’s good to be back.