Author: Jonathan

Jonathan Cook is a researcher of commercial culture, specializing in immersive interviews designed to uncover the emotions, symbols, stories and rituals that drive our behavior in unexpected directions.
bashful

Bashful

We feel bashful when we’re on the verge of entering a social encounter, but we hold ourselves back, suspecting that meeting up with other people could be a big mistake.

ethelred the unready

Unready

We don’t really know what’s going to happen next, and we haven’t obtained the kind of counsel required to face the uncertainty. We are prepared to be deposed.

suicidal

Suicidal

The best way to prevent suicide is not with suicide hotlines and counselors. The best way to prevent suicide is create a more compassionate society that helps people in pain before they get to the point of wanting to kill themselves.

mono no aware

Mono No Aware

The petals flutter to the earth to rejoin the soil in even the slightest breeze. There is beauty in their falling for just a few moments. Then, it is over.

ambivalent

Ambivalence

What do you want? In superhero movies and page-turners written for the beach, the answer to this question is clear. The hero has a goal, but encounters obstacles and must overcome them. In… more emotion Ambivalence

empty

Empty

Whether we pursue it or seek to avoid it, feeling empty is full of meaning.

flux

Flux

Flux is the consequence of an unbecoming, on the way to a new becoming, but not yet there. It is a condition of potential unrealized, its power in its uncertainty.

wrath

Wrath

Wrath may involve a display of power, but it also reveals a lack of self-control and a failure to perceive the bigger picture.

purity

Purity

It’s only a matter of time until we feel degraded again, but for a short while, we can entertain the fantasy of being untouched by the foulness that inevitably accumulates in the wake of our journey through life.

distraction

Distraction

Distraction can be a momentary thing, a glitch in our concentration, an external interference that grabs our attention until we pull it back to what we were doing before. Such a distraction is… more emotion Distraction