I was falling asleep the other night, mumbling along about how I’d like to learn to be a good person. My squishy heart becomes very open and soft at night, under the covers, with the warm lamp glow illuminating the cool room. These mumblings and their accompanying thoughts were full of genuine aspirations of goodness…yet (and this brought tears to my eyes), I knew in my heart I was already so good, that all my strivings are towards goodness. My efforts seemed truly meaningful.
Excerpted from an interview with Martha Nussbaum, philosopher, in the July 25, 2016 issue of The New Yorker:
“To be a good human being,” she has said, “is to have a kind of openness to the world, the ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control that can lead you to be shattered.”
My unicorn family, Halloween 2017