Is it morally acceptable to live a quiet life?
I left you a "voicemail" on this question - you can listen, right inside this email!
Our next Candlelight Chat will be on Sunday, May 5, at 1 pm ET, featuring psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb, the NY Times bestselling author of MAYBE YOU SHOULD TALK TO SOMEONE and “Dear Therapist” columnist for the Atlantic magazine. We invite you to join us, and ask Lori your questions (and/or to watch the replay later)!
“I am developing a taste for the amusements of very old married couples, for the view across lawns, for sitting quietly in the evening sun, for watching sparrows.”
- Franz Kafka, 1914
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A few weeks ago, my husband Ken and and I each saw this quote on social media, and we texted it to each other at nearly the same time - because it so perfectly describes the way we live now. But it’s striking that this quote could EVER speak to Ken, because he’s always lived with so much derring-do (this is really the only word to describe him). My nickname for Ken is Gonzo because historically he’s operated like a “Gonzo” journalist - throwing himself into the center of the action, living and reporting life with equal intensity. This is just his nature. No one would ever associate him with the notion of a Quiet Life.
And yet - these days, he really does spend many hours taking in “the view across lawns” and “watching sparrows.”
So if Gonzo can live such a life, then anyone can.
But then there’s another question - the question of whether anyone SHOULD. Is the idea of a Quiet Life too, well, quietist -- too passive — especially in troubled times like these?