But our problem is not that we don’t try hard enough. It is that we try too hard. It’s that we have such an exaggerated belief in the force of our own effort that we never stop trying. Our pursuit of pleasure and success is relentless, feverish, sometimes bordering on the demonic. We never rest. We have portable computers and faxes and e-mail that we take on vacation. We have phones in our cars. We have call waiting, so that even our interruptions are interrupted. Even those small moments of contemplation—of nefesh, of nothingness—we used to enjoy on vacation or even just driving back and
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