Why did I write it down? In order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it I wanted to remember? How much of it actually happened? Did any of it? Why do I keep a notebook at all? It is easy to deceive oneself on all those scores.
Almost anything that we are able to direct sustained attention at will begin to loop on itself and bloom.
To take a dark example, if you focus on your anxiety, the anxiety can begin to loop until you hyperventilate and get tunnel vision and become filled with nightmarish thoughts and feelings—a panic attack.
And you do the same thing with joy. If you... See more
A beautiful poem by Mary Oliver. The last line is 🔥
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like... See more
what if public libraries were open late every night and we could engage in public life there instead of having to choose between drinking at the bar and domestic isolation