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It is a constant, grueling process to try not be constantly looking to the next thing. And having to try so hard at it feels pathetic.

I think about how I would react to seeing someone outwardly seething that they picked the wrong airport security line / grocery line / toll booth line — a mixture of derision and pity — and realize that I am too often that person. Not sure this is a healthy way of looking at this, but having a comparison for how I want to be to measure against how I currently am sets criteria for what success looks like on that front. Remembering: this is the thing, right now, that you can look back on with the same derision and pity later. Or not, if we can just accept that this cashier is taking forever and that's fine.

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I’ll defer to, and highly recommend, David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” commencement speech, 2005 Kenyon College. YouTube it — both the abridged video version and the full audio speech (22 minutes or so, well spent).

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