We had to be set apart in order to feel together.
We’ll need a great reset when this is all over. We need to start planning a great social festival and ask the obvious questions: Why did we tolerate so much social division before? Why didn’t we cultivate stronger social bonds when we had the chance?
...I’m beginning to appreciate the wisdom that cancer patients share: We just can’t know. Don’t expect life to be predictable or fair. Don’t try to tame the situation with some feel-good lie or confident prediction. Embrace the uncertainty of this whole life-or-death deal.
There’s a weird clarity that comes with that embrace. There is a humility that comes with realizing you’re not the glorious plans you made for your life. When the plans are upset, there’s a quieter and better you beneath them.
We’re seeing the world with plague eyes now. We’re all going through the same experiences. People in Seoul, Milan and New Jersey are connected by a virus that reminds us of the fundamental fact of human interdependence.
Most of us are self-distancing at the same time. Most of us are experiencing the same pause in normal life, undergoing deeper reflections inspired by that pause, experiencing the same anxieties and fears, reading the same memes. So many human universals.
The great paradox, of course, is that we had to be set apart in order to feel together. I’ve been writing about the social fabric for years now, but you really see it only after you’ve lost it.
It’s like when you’re starving, and food is all you can think about. Suddenly everybody has human connection on the top of mind... David Brooks
There’s a weird clarity that comes with that embrace. There is a humility that comes with realizing you’re not the glorious plans you made for your life. When the plans are upset, there’s a quieter and better you beneath them.
We’re seeing the world with plague eyes now. We’re all going through the same experiences. People in Seoul, Milan and New Jersey are connected by a virus that reminds us of the fundamental fact of human interdependence.
Most of us are self-distancing at the same time. Most of us are experiencing the same pause in normal life, undergoing deeper reflections inspired by that pause, experiencing the same anxieties and fears, reading the same memes. So many human universals.
The great paradox, of course, is that we had to be set apart in order to feel together. I’ve been writing about the social fabric for years now, but you really see it only after you’ve lost it.
It’s like when you’re starving, and food is all you can think about. Suddenly everybody has human connection on the top of mind... David Brooks
I can agree to the whole appreciating something more when you don't have it anymore. But i don't understand why the author wants a "great social festival" to talk about why there is so much social division. In his article i feel like he's bouncing around a lot. the main thing i got from this post is during this last few weeks people had more time to reflect on themselves .
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't enjoy a festival, especially after so much time in frightened isolation? Festivals, as the ancient Greeks knew, are occasions to acknowledge and celebrate our lives. If we can't do that, we're just breathing but not truly living.
DeleteI disagree that simply because we are all quarantined to some degree or other that we feel together. Also I don't think it takes something quite so catastrophic as this for people to realize they will not achieve all of their plans. To me it also reinforces people's need to be capable of being independent rather than interdependent.
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DeleteI agree with the sense of embracing uncertainty because sometime knowing hurts a lot and it’s better to be kept in the dark
DeleteThis reminded me of something else I've been reading about with all of this corona stuff. Now that we're all being quarantined/ practicing social distancing, we've discovered what is really necessary for our society to function. It's more clear than ever that the backbone of our society are the people working in the grocery stores, sanitation workers, farmers, etc. I hope a lot of people can realize them, and give these workers more respect.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. One of the lessons of this experience should be to start paying ALL of those people who are society's backbone a living wage.
DeleteI like the idea of embracing uncertainty because nothing in life can ever be planned, being kept on your toes allows you to better react to situations normal or abnormal.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly the theme we'll shortly be exploring: Descartes's quest for certainty vs. Montaigne's embrace of uncertainty. Timely.
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