“Evolutionary psychologist Jeremy Sherman explains that there are two “standard” ways in our culture to connect to the spiritual essence of things. There’s Western religion and there’s the Eastern traditions that we have turned to more recently. But he writes of a “third way” to connect. He calls it soul nerding. Soul nerding is about studying our predicament with considered curiosity by “absorbing evolutionary biology, intellectual history, philosophy, anthropology, and above all, literature.” I’d add poetry and art to this list, as well as music, particularly classical. Voltaire called it “cultivating our garden.” It’s the connection we feel in the stillness and attention required to appreciate a creative expression by a fellow human.”