“You may be dying, but you should hear what’s happening to me.” “Well, enough about me, what do you think about me?” People don’t really say that kind of thing, do they?  Actually, yes, they often do. Maybe not in so many words.  But, if you listen to the shape of many conversations, you will [...]

Someone once said, “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” Both the former and the latter are inevitably true. Even people who enjoy considerable fame mean very little to most of us.  They may represent or embody some measure of shared longing or common commitments, [...]