There's a peculiar & very American desire to do
without psychology, which is akin to the desire to
eat what you want & dispense with all knowledge of
nutrition. And the results are not that different. In
the name of a specious "freedom", we have the unedifying
spectacle of a nation wholly given over to the tyranny
of its appetites.

Emotional states should be named with verbs, not nouns.

The virtue of storying our lives is that, since there are
only story-consolations, our sorrows become amenable
as they fit the outlines of story-sorrows. The depth of
grief yield but to death: it is necessary, except for very
tranquil interludes, to live on the surface--a facade of
artificial continuity. Artists must know this, & also heed
it. Where they give up storying, they come face to face
with ultimate destruction.

"If immeasurable love were perfect wisdom, one human
being might almost impersonate Providence to another."
--George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel