Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig is a highly-readable and relatable collection of thoughts and essays on how we can deal with rapid shifts in society that, from an evolutionary perspective, we’re simply not equipped to cope with. It included the following quote.
There is just love and kindness and trying, amid the chaos, to make things better where we can. And to keep our minds wide, wide open in a world that often wants to close them.
Reading that just a week or two or ago reminded me of the best book I read in 2021: John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed.
Specifically, it reminded me of a couple of lines from his one-star review of viral meningitis.
The challenge and responsibility of personhood, it seems to me, is to recognize personhood in others - to listen to others’ pain and take it seriously, even when you yourself cannot feel it. That capacity for listening, I think, really does separate human life from the quasi-life of an enterovirus.
In case it’s not obvious, I highly recommend Notes on a Nervous Planet and, in particular, The Anthropocene Reviewed.
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