“What we really want is to be seen through the eyes of love.”

The “wish to be feared or loved by people for no reason other than the joy derived from such power, which [he now realizes] is no joy at all. It is a wretched life.” It is the sort of life that hollows you out, sucking every ounce of your energy to the surface to maintain the veneer that captures attention. Indeed, we’re prone in this idolatry to m

It feels so necessary to be witnessed, as though the desire for a bystander is baked into human DNA. We want to be seen, heard, felt, smelled, tasted, touched, and we find all sorts of ways to do that: to force our pasta upon guests, to extend our hands in welcome, to douse ourselves in perfume, all with the hope to be held in thought by others.