One, I’ve decided that I’ll risk being earnest. And I’m gonna err on that side and sometimes I’ll go over the line and be insufferable, but the world needs a little earnestness cause there’s a lot of cynicism and snarkiness. But secondly, the solution for a lot of us is what I call a galaxy of warm places. That every week you have a regular set of people you meet with where the dominant mode is not ideas and intellect - it’s emotion. I’ve come to believe that character is not built internally through an inner drama with self, though that’s part of it. It’s built externally, by making commitments to things: to a spouse or a family, to a philosophy or faith, to a community or to a vocation. And how well we choose those things and execute those things determines the fulfillment of our lives.
David Brooks
