Brain Food #377
Someone to observe us
Daily Brain Food.
Thoughts of the day
One of the greatest joys in life is discovering a piece of work - a book, a painting, a film - that completely captures and fluently expresses something you had brewing within you but could never put a finger on, let alone entirely articulate. Like meeting someone new and instantly knowing you are going to be friends.
I encounter this sensation every time I read something by Tim Kreider, like the below observation on the bizarre acceptance and unbreakable faith that lie behind every true friendship:
“For all his secrecy and his fear of being seen, he was touched that we had observed him so closely, and with such love. He loved that we knew him. This is one reason people need to believe in God - because we want someone to know us, truly, all the way through, even the worst of us.
[...]
This is one of the things we rely on our friends for: to think better of us than we think of ourselves. It makes us feel better, but it also makes us better; we try to be the person they believe we are.”