“Our civic life is heavily marked—indeed, pocked—by debates in which each side is so certain of its position that any movement is effectively impossible. For that matter, debate—in its original sense of “to consider something, to deliberate”—is impossible. We wind… — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share Image
Is there a wrong way to say "I don't know"? Yes. When we declare ignorance, it should be a) honest and b) in the spirit of opening ourselves up to hearing, to learning, to receiving. When we say "I don't know" under these conditions, the words can forge connection, healing, growth. But when we resist or disavow knowledge, when we… — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share
“Wally gives gifts all the time, at the drop of a hat, little, odd ones. The gift not so much in the item itself… — Leah hager Cohen Copy Share Image
Every sad thing, every loss or hurt really a challenge to love that much more, really just another of beauty's many strongholds. — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share Image
“The words came fast and slow, because the act of writing plunged me so wantonly down slippery avenues of thought that frequently I found myself not writing at all, my mouth open on a half-formed word with which my hand had been unable to keep pace and from which my mind had careened many seconds or whole minutes earlier like… — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share
“Like storytelling, that incessant loving rush of explaining and repositioning and telling again, all for the sake of finding something shared, something mutually recognized… — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share Image
People cheat when they are afraid. When there is no cost to being wrong or confessing ignorance, there is no reason to cheat or… — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share Image
For why are we here if not to try to fathom one another? Not through facts alone, but with the full extent of our… — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share Image
“That our intuition could lead us astray is troubling in direct proportion to the degree of trust we place in it. The solution would seem to be: Don’t be overly trusting. Mix in a healthy dose of skepticism. But suppose we don’t have a say in the matter? Suppose we’re hardwired to trust—to believe in—our instincts, regardless of whether they’re… — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share
Unfortunately, being physically equipped to hear has little to do with the actual predilection to listen. Sharing a common tongue does not ensure earnest or successful communication. Missed connections occur among hearing people all the time, splitting open countless minor chasms and yawning gulches, fissures that no vaccine or technilogical advance will ever be able to mend or prevent. That… — Leah Hager Cohen Copy Share
