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Love > Likes.

Words to start the week, courtesy of Jonathan Safran Foer via The New York Times"We often use technology to save time, but increasingly, it either takes the saved time along with it, or makes the saved time less present, intimate and rich. I worry that the closer the world gets to our fingertips, the further it gets from our hearts...


...everyone is always in need of something that another person can give, be it undivided attention, a kind word or deep empathy. There is no better use of a life than to be attentive to such needs. There are as many ways to do this as there are kinds of loneliness, but all of them require attentiveness, all of them require the hard work of emotional computation and corporeal compassion. All of them require the human processing of the only animal who risks 'getting it wrong' and whose dreams provide shelters and vaccines and words to crying strangers. 

We live in a world made up more of story than stuff. We are creatures of memory more than reminders, of love more than likes. Being attentive to the needs of others might not be the point of life, but it is the work of life. It can be messy, and painful, and almost impossibly difficult. But it is not something we give. It is what we get in exchange for having to die." 

Read the rest of the article, entitled "How Not to Be Alone," here. Photo by Amanda Jasnowski. New POV post coming tomorrow - until then, have a lovely Monday!

15 comments:

  1. One of my friends on FB shared this article today, too. Now I guess I just have to read the whole thing.

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  2. Wow. This was just a beautiful reminder! Sharing it on Facebook!

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  3. I love this. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Love this so much.

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  5. thanks, sho. it's lovely.

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  6. Wow. No words now. Thanks for sharing, Shoko.

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  7. he's one of my favorites. thank you.

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  8. April, yes, read it! It's so wonderful.

    Kristin, great! So glad!

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  9. Thanks so much for sharing this. I've been reading and re-reading it all day.

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  10. I love everything about this article, especially this: Simone Weil wrote, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

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  11. i printed the entire piece today and sent it to someone i dearly love and miss. thanks for sharing. we have to hang out soon, neighbor... ;)
    xo, c

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  12. This is wonderful. Thanks for sharing!

    I would like to pass it on as well, if that is okay.

    xx katie

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