I’ve stood sentinel, I confess. Feeling at once the draw of the spectacle and the urge to bear witness, knowing, to some degree, the evident limits of both, and trying to embrace my own distinction between, on the one hand, having my attention captured and, on the other, attending to the world. 

Asya uses anthropology’s tools to regard her own specific life and surroundings with curiosity and distance, allowing her to better understand them and to see their meaning and worth.

I wonder, if I keep track of these pockets of poetry, what they will tell me over time? I wonder if the similarity of these moments is some sort of clue. A clue to what mystery, I’m not entirely sure. One thing I have learned about myself in the few days since I started thinking about this is how immediately children bring me to the present moment.... See more