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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
David Brooks
Read between
February 22 - April 22, 2024
Remb...
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Frederick Buechner
Literature, she argued, “is built on tenderness toward any being other than ourselves.”
so is seeing.
RECEPTIVITY.
Being receptive means overcoming insecurities and self-preoccupation and opening yourself up to the experience of another.
it, we want our minds to be slack and attentive at the same time,
ACTIVE CURIOSITY.
AFFECTION.
In the biblical world, for example, “knowing” is also a whole-body experience. In the Bible, “knowing” can involve studying, having sex with, showing concern for, entering into a covenant with, being familiar with, understanding the reputation of. God is described as the perfect knower,
The human characters in the Bible are measured by how well they can imitate this affectionate way of knowing.
GENEROSITY.
A HOLISTIC ATTITUDE.
Leo Tolstoy
it could never be true to say of one man that he is kind or wise, and of another that he is wicked or stupid.
Human beings are like rivers;
men. Every man bears within him the germs of every human quality, and now manifests one, now another, and frequently he is quite unlike himself, while still remaining the same man.
We will be on our way toward improving how we show up in the world.
Parker J. Palmer
the relation of the knower to the known becomes the relation of the living self to the larger world.”
that the way we attend to others determines the kind of...
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If we see people generously, we will become generous, or if we view them cold...
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observation is essential, because he is pointing to a modern answer t...
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How do I become a bett...
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person. “Love is knowledge of the individual,”
time, morality is about the skill of being considerate toward others in the complex situations of life.
being a genius at the close at hand.
Good and evil, Murdoch believes, begin in the inner life,
We can, Murdoch writes, “grow by looking.”
I find this philosophy of moral development tremendously attractive and compelling.
Mary Pipher
that her trick when doing therapy is to have no tricks,
way of paying attention, which is the purest form of love.”
She tries to inhabit each person’s point of view and see them, sympathetically, as those who are doing the best they can. Her basic viewpoint is charitable to all comers.
“All families are a little crazy, but that is because all humans are a little crazy.”
She is offering the kind of attention that can change people.
Loren Eiseley,
he took off his clothes
What does it feel like to be a river?
He was accompanying the river.
After the illuminating gaze, accompaniment is the next step in getting to know a person.
You’re just doing stuff together—not face-to-face but side by side.
You are accompanying each other.
You’re not studying a person, just getting used to them.
of each other’s energy, temperament, and manner.
tacit knowledge about each other that is required before other kinds of knowledge can be broached.
thing. Nothing can be heard in the mind until the situation feels safe an...
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if you don’t talk about the little things on a regular basis, it’s hard to talk about the big things.
how to be present with other people.
When you’re accompanying someone, you’re in a state of relaxed awareness—attentive
