how to be in community

I’m reminded of what Spencer R. Scott describes as ‘becoming a person of place’ – the idea that rooting yourself somewhere makes the future feel more valuable because its wellbeing becomes intertwined with your own. It’s a beautiful and necessary reframing of commitment as expansion rather than limitation.

I’ve been comforted and energized by this idea — which I first heard in this interview with the novelist Zadie Smith — that caretaking is a kind of liberation.

It’s liberation from the idea that we can self-optimize ourselves to the point of not needing anyone else. That if we work hard enough to survive in a competitive economy, we’ll be able to b... See more