I was sitting by a firepit on Saturday night and a guy I had just met said ‘so, what are you a
I was sitting by a firepit on Saturday night and a guy I had just met said ‘so, what are you about? What’s your deal?’ . I said, 'I’m a writer I guess. I’m working on a memoir and a magazine.’ . He said, 'Why’d you get into that? What does that do for you?’ . How rarely does somebody ask the next question: the why. The motivation behind the motivation behind the action. I thought for a minute before speaking, which is rare for me, and I think I figured it out. . I said that the root of most pain in the world is the false belief of aloneness. We think what happens to us is rare, impossible to understand, broken and embarrassing. That creates a fragile ego that defends itself, plays games, schemes, and doubts. If we knew we weren’t alone, we’d feel the foundational love of belonging. And once you belong, you can love without fear of total loss. . I learned so much about belonging from reading. When I would read some beautiful line in Steinbeck, Dillard, Miller, Kingsolver, Berry or Lewis… I would underline it with a wide grin and a deep breath. “How can this dead guy know what I am thinking, right now?!” It is the best feeling in the world. A sudden sense of belonging in the human race. It took all my twenties, but I realized that was what I wanted to do with my life. To shock people with understanding. To get them to say 'how did you know?!’ I wanted to contribute to the thing that I loved the most. That made me feel safe being human. So I became a writer. . Our backyard at sunset. @serindaswan is a 'vibe-master’… and made it look like this. So many conversations have been had right here. I think it’s made a smoothed shiny spot in the universe, like the rubbed nose of a statue. . : @tylerlain -- source link
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