Spinning and Other Existential Mistakes Last Friday night, a terrifying existential insight struck me – and it happened during an already terrifying activity: spinning class. Across from me, the fitness coach was cycling with a hypnotizingly equal cadence. All around, gym-goers were dripping sweat, electrolytes and dignity. And just when I thought the cardio was approaching its grand finale, my heart rate took an unauthorized swerve upwards. “There is only one really serious philosophical problem,” Albert Camus once thought – and that is the question of whether life is worth living. ...

As I am starting to write, I have no answer in mind. The Bulgarian Ergen is our national version of the American reality TV show The Bachelor– a show that runs on a fundamentally offensive premise. Namely, that a plethora of drop dead gorgeous women need to audition for one single male, who ultimately decides which one he wants to marry. In this fabricated TV environment, women tend to transform into these unwatchable, needy, kiss-assy creatures, while the male is portrayed as a God to be put on a pedestal. ...