George Saunders

But I'm guessing that if you sat that person down, they wouldn't disagree with us in principle.

So that's a very rich question, and I don't think anybody knows.

No, no, no.

But, you know, we don't have to solve it.

We have to formulate it correctly, and you just actually did.

Well, for me, it's just the awareness that we have thoughts, and we don't really

they sort of self-generate and they dominate us.

And we mistake those thoughts for us.

So, I mean, you could go through your whole life thinking that you are this cloud of thoughts.

So in both Buddhist practice and writing, you have a little bit of a chance to go, oh, those are just, those aren't,

They're like brain farts.

They're just happening spontaneously.

And I didn't actually create them.

And I'm not sure I really want to take ownership of them.

And at the same time, they're affecting my body.

So the thing is you get to just get clear for just long enough to recognize them as being separate from who you actually are.

And I think that would lead to some form of kindness.

Because if I think, like, why am I unkind?

It's almost always because I'm in a hurry and because I'm anxious.

So for me, the baby steps, I can do meditation and I can do a little writing and then be aware of how inadequate I am for the rest of the day.