Rob Tourtelot
@rtourtelot
Rob Tourtelot
Thus our strange relationship with the pain of grief. In the early days, we wish only for it to end; later on, we fear that it will. And when it finally does begin to ease, it also does not, because, at first, feeling better can feel like loss, too.
Maria Popova • Losing Love, Finding Love, and Living with the Fragility of It All
That sharp turn away from blaming others happens once you finally address your shame. Shame is something everyone has, thanks to our shame-ruled, shame-dispensing culture, but some people obviously have it worse than others. I’ve always been massively ashamed and self-hating, and for a long time, even in Ask Polly, I described shame as a thing you... See more
Talking about friendship with Heather Havrilesky
I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live... See more
Rainer Maria Rilke • Letters to a Young Poet
“In order for the drama to deepen we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”
Episode 93 ft. Vivian Gornick
Vivian Gornick, memoirist and teacher
Typical open-ended questions are variations on “Tell me more” and “Help me understand better ….”
Roger Fisher • Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
So we stumbled through our loving, difficult readings and tiny speeches; then the button was pushed, and as the coffin advanced solemnly into the furnace, dysfunctional squawks came like a shower of arrows out of the sound system. The tape kept trying to play and its clicks and grindings were amplified very efficiently into the overhead speakers.
... See moreJohn Tarrant • Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life
Tell me, what questions do you carry, that wouldn’t exist if you knew exactly what you were doing? (Hint: That’s where your next interesting thing lives)