Meet William Hayden — Cofounder Tech Hero by Day, Poet by Night & Bleeding Anarchist at Heart
Estimated Time of Arrival — Issue #28 The imprisonment of food as a root-cause for conflict, a love poem that sounds better in Spanish and doing what you're told.
Top of the morning!
Welcome to Estimated Time of Arrival, your Wednesday newsletter where yours truly, Paula Romeu-Garcia, introduces the hottest artists from around the world and asks them uncomfortable questions…
I crashed our next guest’s birthday party last year.
The elevator opened into some fancy penthouse in Willy-B. Two sphinx cats played hide and seek around a pyramid of gifts. A bunch of pretty people drank around the kitchen counter which had two mouthwatering cakes on top.
Do you like it when I’m outrageous? If so, I’ll tell you the truth.
The first thing I noticed about him was his Ken smile. The second, with the risk of sounding objectifying, a sculpted arse you don’t acquire for free.
The third one, triggered some primal instincts inside me.
I got closer, wagging an imaginary tail, imitating the Sphynxes, and not very subtly, I whiff, whiffed at the scent* emanating from him.
He must have noticed but didn’t mention it.
Who the hell was this polished, polite, seemingly philantropic and hopefully fake-ass motherclucker?
I had to find out. We got to talking.
My eyes fixated on his crystal-clear ones, looking for a weak spot in his otherwise sobering eloquence about the meaning of being an artist.
Another blah-blah tech dude, I thought to myself in a glimpse of arrogance.
“Are you an artist?”
“yes,” he said without the slightest hesitation.
“Oh, yeah? What kinda artist are you?”
And like an arrow straight to my Achilles heel, he replied “a poet”.
Damn it.
“Can I see something you wrote?”
Neither showing off nor coyly, he abided. He found a poem on his phone very quickly. The title — a homage to Neruda** — was in Spanish.
In MY language!? I was in trouble.
*Turns out it was Green Irish Tweed by Creed perhaps mixed with some hormones.
Later, one of his many friends handed him a present. A book he’d already read. “I’m never gonna exchange it” he said grateful but unbothered.
“I would,” I said cheeky. The least invited and most unlikely person there.
To my surprise, he handed me the bag, the book and the receipt. I exchanged it for a psychedelic jigsaw for my birthday a couple of weeks later.
Cos
and I seem to have only two things in common. We’re both December Caps and adore Russian literature.Otherwise, he’s an introvert who pretends to be extroverted and I’m an extrovert who dabbles in introversion.
He’s stone-cold sober and I’m a balanced hedonist.
He lives in the poshest part of Manhattan, I live in the rock n roll part of Brooklyn.
He’s monogamous, I’m exploring ENM.
He’s an anarchist and I’m not cultured enough on political systems to take a firm stance.
His sense of community and desire to help others, however, are admirable. For instance, he works for non-profits in prison outreach to bring arts as an alternative path to rehabilitation.
But more than that, he’s a solid dude. Up for a challenge, with strong opinions, the knowledge to back them up and a contagious smile on his face.
I’m curious to see what you think about our unusual guest William Hayden, cofounder, poet and anarchist as our next guest at Estimated Time of Arrival.
The Imprisonment of Food.
On the podcast, we discuss some serious thoughts and hypotheses:
From the different phases of love, to anarchy as a misunderstood ideology, to money being made up, to reversing the cycle of evolution and becoming “an aquatic dwelling fish-like species that only has to worry about being eaten by sharks” 🦈 😂
But one I found particularly interesting was the “imprisonment” of food as the root cause of most conflicts and even war.
(This is just for you dear reader, as we discussed it off-record).
“In hunter-gatherer societies, where food and resources were often shared among community members, strong norms around sharing and reciprocity would reduce or eliminate the need or desire to take resources dishonestly.
As those societies transitioned to agricultural and then to industrial societies, the complexity of social structures and the concept of property changed dramatically— the introduction of personal property, wealth, and later, monetary systems, created new opportunities for inequality and thus new types of crimes, such as theft, fraud, and violence over resources….”
Here are some resources if you wanna go deeper:
Daniel Quinn’s “The Story of B”.
Durkheim’s on Social Solidarity.
Marx’s “conflict theory” where society is in a state of perpetual conflict because of competition for limited resources.
"The Formation of the English Common Law: Law and Society in England from King Alfred to Magna Carta" by John Hudson.
“The Origins of Agriculture” by David Rindos.
**The Homage to Neruda
This is the poem that made me want to have him as a guest.
Best Advice.
DO WHAT YOU’RE TOLD.
As you can see, our dear guest likes to be provoking and push people’s buttons but his elaboration on that statement made sense.
If you’re not an expert on something, follow word by word the advice of those who are, and you’ll succeed faster.
The World Today in 5 Words or Less.
Different than it appears.
A Film or Series that Moved You.
I had a sob the other night. It's a story about one of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Prison stuff means something to me. My intention wasn't to have a profound experience with this content. But, what the US did at Guantanamo Bay and also the idea of what humans are capable of when put under pressure in a highly politicized and violently rooted civilizational structure is scary and sad.
A Secret Ingredient that Makes Everything Better.
Peanut butter. (Apparently even for sex and burgers!)
Self-promo Station!
I started a company with some friends a few years ago, it's called Bags, Bags of Money, and we're helping thousands of small business owners and consumer brand founders ensure their financial future.
The real idea is we want more people to own more businesses that allow them to generate wealth for themselves and their families and build stronger local economies.
Instagram: @Secure_Bags
We also create things to solve problems that we have. So we created Poisson. An all-vegetable supplement with no inorganic compounds in it:
Just 7 mushrooms, 2 types of algae, and 4 different roots, all in 1 pill.
Helps with sleep, energy levels and pooping. 😴 🔋 💩
(If you’re looking for an affordable supplement to boost your energy levels, I can attest to its efficiency).
Artist/s you Love and Wish Them Even More Success.
Jamal Robinson — He's an incredibly talented painter.
Matt Butler — founder of Art That Serves, the charity that I'm lucky to sit on the board of. He's created a show called Reckless Son, and it's a one-man show about his experience bringing music into prisons that it inspires compassion for the incarcerated.
Thank you for being here with me another week, keeping me company in this eternal return to New York, after 4 airports, 3 cancellations and many delays…
As my grandma used to say, Dios aprieta pero no ahoga, God chokes but doesn’t kill.
Keep believing and flowing.
Agápe,
Paula x