Exhalation: Stories

Each time you do something generous, you’re shaping yourself into someone who’s more likely to be generous next time, and that matters.

“We like the idea that there’s always someone responsible for any given event, because that helps us make sense of the world. We like that so much that sometimes we blame ourselves, just so that there’s someone to blame. But not everything is under our control, or even anyone’s control.”

This search is my purpose; not because you chose it for me, Lord, but because I chose it for myself.

We human beings may not be the answer to the question why, but I will keep looking for the answer to how.

think I’ve found the real benefit of digital memory. The point is not to prove you were right; the point is to admit you were wrong.

It seemed to me that a perfect memory couldn’t be a narrative any more than unedited security-cam footage could be a feature film.

writing was not just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said it. And words were not just the pieces of speaking; they were the pieces of thinking. When you wrote them down, you could grasp your thoughts like bricks in your hands and push them into different arrangements. Writing let you look at

For a mind to even approach its full potential, it needs cultivation by other minds.

If they look like cartoons, no one will take them seriously. Conversely, if they look too much like real animals, their facial expressions and ability to speak become disconcerting.