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Why do we focus on certain things at the expense of others?
We will risk our lives to save a person from drowning, yet not make a donation that could save dozens of children from starvation. We install solar panels when their impact on CO2 emissions is minimal—and indeed may have a net negative effect if manufacturing and installation are taken into account—rather than contributing to more efficient infrastructure projects.
We are genetically programmed to react to stimuli in our immediate vicinity.
Responding to complex issues that we cannot perceive directly requires the application of reasoning, which is less powerful than instinct.
the testicles of drone bees and wasp spiders explode during sex.”
“You know what I like about New York?” he said. “There are so many weird people that nobody takes any notice. We all just fit right in.”
So, to add to a momentous day, I corrected a misconception that my family had held for at least fifteen years and came out to them as straight.
need not be visibly odd. I could engage in the protocols that others followed and move undetected among them. And how could I be sure that other people were not doing the same—playing the game to be accepted but suspecting all the time that they were different?
I knew so much shit and I still couldn’t fix myself.
Love is a powerful feeling for another person, often defying logic.
Rosie and I were on our way to New York, where being weird is acceptable.
We are now also able to hug without having sex, which is obviously convenient at times.
Don must confront his long-held notions of what it means to love and connect with people and what it truly means to open up and trust someone.
“Humans often fail to see what is close to them and obvious to others”?
