Here’s one of my favorite things to do on a Sunday: to settle into our red rocking chair with my feet on the ottoman, a cat on my lap, and a cup of coffee in my hand to read the New York Times Magazine. A couple of weeks ago, the Letter of Recommendation by Sam Anderson caught my attention. Advocating the value of looking out the window, Sifton writes,
Windows are…a powerful existential tool: a patch of the world, arbitrarily framed, from which we are physically isolated. The only thing you can do is look. You have no influence over what you will see. Your brain is forced to make drama out of whatever happens to appear. Boring things become strange. A blob of mist balances on top of a mountain; leafless trees contort themselves in slow-motion interpretive dance; heavy raindrops make the puddles boil. These things are a tiny taste of the bigness of the world. They were there before you looked; they will be there after you go. None of it depends on you.
This philosophical bit is just to whet your appetite for the full column, which contains a simple story with a profound conclusion. Check it out!