make one’s own crisis,
instead of getting them out
of the newspaper

There is some slight advantage to living as a recluse, in that one makes one’s own crisis, instead of getting them out of the newspaper.

E.B. White in a letter to Eugene Saxton & Cass Canfield in 1939.

timeless wisdom … I
hold your broken heart knowing
one day you’ll hold mine

And each person who encountered someone in pain would look into their eyes and inquire: “What happened to you? Why does your heart ache?”

“My father died,” a person might say. “There are so many things I never got to say to him.” Or perhaps: “My partner left. I was completely blindsided.” Or: “My child is sick. We’re awaiting the test results.”

Those who walked from the right would offer a blessing: “May the Holy One comfort you,” they would say. “You are not alone.” And then they would continue to walk until the next person approached.

This timeless wisdom speaks to what it means to be human in a world of pain. This year, you walk the path of the anguished. Perhaps next year, it will be me. I hold your broken heart knowing that one day you will hold mine.

This timeless wisdom speaks to what it means to be human in a world of pain. This year, you walk the path of the anguished. Perhaps next year, it will be me.

From Two Lessons From an Ancient Text That Changed My Life by Sharon Brous in the New York Times Op/Ed on January 19, 2024. Rabbi Brous is the founding and senior rabbi of Ikar, a Jewish community based in Los Angeles, and the author of “The Amen Effect.”

Rabbi Brous ends with this:

Small, tender gestures remind us that we are not helpless, even in the face of grave human suffering. We maintain the ability, even in the dark of night, to find our way to one another. We need this, especially now.

We desperately need a spiritual rewiring in our time.

day I ‘cultivate’
books … day I’ll know I’ve truly
failed as a human

As soon as I saw the headline, Do You Have ‘Bookshelf Wealth’?, in the New York Times, I said to myself, don’t read it.

It will just … well I didn’t know for sure what it would do but I knew it would do something to me.

In the end, it gave me hope.

It was an article that dealt with the reaction of book people to people who decorate with books and book shelves and book cases.

Here is the gist of it:

Kailee Blalock, an interior designer in San Diego, posted a video to TikTok last month that sought to define bookshelf wealth and school viewers in achieving the aesthetic in their own homes.

“These aren’t display books,” Ms. Blalock, 26, cautions in the video, which has been viewed over 1.3 million times. “These are books that have actually been curated and read.”

This literary look, she went on to say, goes well with pictures hung willy-nilly on the walls, sometimes even partly blocking the shelves, as well as mismatched fabric patterns and a bit of clutter.

In an interview, Ms. Blalock expanded on her advice. “I think to really achieve the look and the lifestyle, someone has to be an avid reader and has to appreciate the act of collecting things, especially art and sculpture,” she said.

Though Ms. Blalock did not originate the term “bookshelf wealth,” her video has spurred plenty of online discussion. “The day I ‘cultivate’ books instead of buying what I like to read is the day I’ll know I’ve truly failed as a human,” one user commented. Others remarked how bookshelf wealth was less about reading and more about regular old wealth.

Breana Newton, a legal coordinator in Princeton, N.J., who posts regularly about books on TikTok, was one of the people who responded to Ms. Blalock’s video. “I am going to show you bookshelf wealth,” Ms. Newton, 33, says in a video of her own. “Ready?”

She then gives viewers a brief tour of her home, showing books everywhere — on shelves, in overflow piles here and there, and strewed across the bed. Absent is the sense that the rooms have been staged, or that the books were bought with the consideration of how they would look on Instagram.

Been through this discussion before.

I am reminded of the artist played by Max von Sydow in the movie, ‘Hannah and Her Sisters”.

His character, a struggling artist, throws a rock star prospective client out of his gallery when the rock star asks, ‘What do you got that would go with a red ottoman?’

I always end up with the self graded quiz on CLASS in the book, CLASS, by Paul Fussell.

Mr. Fussell writes:

Bookcase(s) partially filled with books – add 5
Any old leather bindings more than 75 years old – add 6
Bookcase(s) filled with books – add 7
Overflow books stacked on floor, chairs, ETC – add 6

The reported comment, “The day I ‘cultivate’ books instead of buying what I like to read is the day I’ll know I’ve truly failed as a human,” warmed me all over.

So long as buying the books someone wants to read is a sign of being human, I feel that we still got a chance.