Kathryn Schulz

You can't look at the grand sweep of things and not realize how tenuous our foothold in this world is and how quickly we will be not merely lost, but forgotten. You know, I had this arresting moment when I realized, you know, I'm I can barely tell you my great-grandparents' names. I mean, that is three generations, right? That is the blink of an eye. But so it goes.

You can't look at the grand sweep of things and not realize how tenuous our foothold in this world is and how quickly we will be not merely lost, but forgotten. You know, I had this arresting moment when I realized, you know, I'm I can barely tell you my great-grandparents' names. I mean, that is three generations, right? That is the blink of an eye. But so it goes.

And everything we love, everyone we love, we are going to have to confront just the devastating loss of literally all of them. That's the bleak version, you know, and it's real. I don't think it's the whole story. There are ways to try to hold the bifocal vision of that kind of loss and why our lives are nonetheless not insignificant or at least not meaningless.

And everything we love, everyone we love, we are going to have to confront just the devastating loss of literally all of them. That's the bleak version, you know, and it's real. I don't think it's the whole story. There are ways to try to hold the bifocal vision of that kind of loss and why our lives are nonetheless not insignificant or at least not meaningless.

But certainly, you know, in hard moments, and I think for people who struggle with depression or who have a truly unfair burden of grief in their lives, it can seem like the only truth about existence.

But certainly, you know, in hard moments, and I think for people who struggle with depression or who have a truly unfair burden of grief in their lives, it can seem like the only truth about existence.

Oh, no question about it. I mean, grief is just an amazing lens. I mean, its capacity for sharp focus is incredible. And it is true that there were moments in the depths of grieving or preparing to grieve my father that the world had never seemed so beautiful to me or so much like a gift. And there's a reason we...

Oh, no question about it. I mean, grief is just an amazing lens. I mean, its capacity for sharp focus is incredible. And it is true that there were moments in the depths of grieving or preparing to grieve my father that the world had never seemed so beautiful to me or so much like a gift. And there's a reason we...

honor death so much and why so many generations of philosophers have regarded studying death as the key to figuring out how to live a good life. The incredible thing about death is it forces you to recognize that you are alive and that that is not a permanent condition, right? We have this moment and no other known or given moments. To relish that fact and to savor it and to be grateful for it.

honor death so much and why so many generations of philosophers have regarded studying death as the key to figuring out how to live a good life. The incredible thing about death is it forces you to recognize that you are alive and that that is not a permanent condition, right? We have this moment and no other known or given moments. To relish that fact and to savor it and to be grateful for it.

And it is true. I write a lot towards the end of this book about attention and the gift of attention. And I do think, you know, some kinds of grief can turn us inward and away from the world and obliterate attention in troubling ways. But I think very often...

And it is true. I write a lot towards the end of this book about attention and the gift of attention. And I do think, you know, some kinds of grief can turn us inward and away from the world and obliterate attention in troubling ways. But I think very often...

grief and the awareness of the inevitability of death truly does heighten our sense of attention and our capacity to look at the world with gratitude and look at it with admiration. And I don't know what other force could do that. I mean, that's tragic. I wish there were something else.

grief and the awareness of the inevitability of death truly does heighten our sense of attention and our capacity to look at the world with gratitude and look at it with admiration. And I don't know what other force could do that. I mean, that's tragic. I wish there were something else.

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. To be honest, it's actually the reason I wrote this book.

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. To be honest, it's actually the reason I wrote this book.

The moment that I started thinking seriously about what it was like to have experienced those two quite momentous life experiences in extremely short succession, short enough that I was still falling in love while my father was dying and found myself kind of grappling with these extraordinarily different emotions at the same time. Speaking of attention, that's what got my attention.

The moment that I started thinking seriously about what it was like to have experienced those two quite momentous life experiences in extremely short succession, short enough that I was still falling in love while my father was dying and found myself kind of grappling with these extraordinarily different emotions at the same time. Speaking of attention, that's what got my attention.

I thought, well, this is interesting, right? This actually is... the fundamental nature of life, right? We are actually always dealing with more than one thing at once. And sometimes they are profoundly contradictory. Sometimes they're just deeply unrelated. And yet somehow we have to spread our attention among them.

I thought, well, this is interesting, right? This actually is... the fundamental nature of life, right? We are actually always dealing with more than one thing at once. And sometimes they are profoundly contradictory. Sometimes they're just deeply unrelated. And yet somehow we have to spread our attention among them.