Substrate

— like seeing a good friend, long neglected, after so many years. ​ He asks him questions, and then more questions, and waits through silences when Lloyd can’t answer them. ​ — instead of sitting with those feelings, again, we work. Because work means money, and money brings a modicum of stability, and relief, however temporary, from that same fear. Work doesn’t actually give us peace or solve our problems. But for a lot of us, it’s what we’re good at and what we know, which is far more comforting than staring at the abyss of what we don’t. ​ He brings us back to the openheartedness of childhood, when we lacked the skill to deflect, or compartmentalize, or resort to work. ​ nonetheless a practice: a decision, made every day, to care deeply about others, but also to refuse to insulate himself from the emotions that care requires.