Love this Chris! You may know this Simone Weil quote — Toward the end of the “School Studies” essay, Weil discusses how attention can transform human relationships.
“Not only does the love of God have attention for its substance; the love of our neighbor, which we know to be the same love, is made of this same substance.
Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.”
My go to quote for Simone is this: "Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer." I only learned it from Karen Swallow Prior though. I haven't actually read any of her work.
Let's face it, Wendell's probably always going to be better than all of us. :)
But this is precisely the thing I've been circulating in my head. An increasingly strong part of me wants to just say, "to hell with it all!" and leave abruptly. And then I start thinking about all the people I've connected with and the writing I want to do, and I back away from the idea.
So I stay on and keep plotting a way to keep the connections and writing without all the trappings that steal my attention. If I ever come up with something sufficient, I'll let you know...
Maybe we should take a note form Wendell after all: "Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction." Not sure what that looks like on social media but I'll try to figure it out.
Love this Chris! You may know this Simone Weil quote — Toward the end of the “School Studies” essay, Weil discusses how attention can transform human relationships.
“Not only does the love of God have attention for its substance; the love of our neighbor, which we know to be the same love, is made of this same substance.
Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.”
I knew Simone Weil had something to say about attention, but I haven’t read her enough to remember where!
My go to quote for Simone is this: "Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer." I only learned it from Karen Swallow Prior though. I haven't actually read any of her work.
There it is.
Let's face it, Wendell's probably always going to be better than all of us. :)
But this is precisely the thing I've been circulating in my head. An increasingly strong part of me wants to just say, "to hell with it all!" and leave abruptly. And then I start thinking about all the people I've connected with and the writing I want to do, and I back away from the idea.
So I stay on and keep plotting a way to keep the connections and writing without all the trappings that steal my attention. If I ever come up with something sufficient, I'll let you know...
Maybe we should take a note form Wendell after all: "Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction." Not sure what that looks like on social media but I'll try to figure it out.
It seems like that could refer to diversity in what you consume, to avoid media echo chambers?
For sure. My pastor jokes about following all sorts of diametrically opposed sources on Instagram to confuse the algorithm 🙂