Ask people what they want out of life and you’ll likely hear the big things: recognition, wealth, achievement, freedom, status. Ask them what they actually remember, years later, and the answers simplify: a meal, a friendship, a habit, a quiet place.

The structure of our culture makes the ordinary feel illegitimate. It’s treated as something you... See more

Had I wanted so desperately to be special, to have a purpose, to recover from the shame of not being able to keep pace with the corporate world that I had somehow fabricated the entire thing? And how would I ever be able to tell for sure? If we are all just hallucinating this reality around us, how could we ever really know what is true and real

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