Over the years, I’d spent time with Tommy Wilhelm, but it was only over this past weekend that I recognized in him a deep kinship of sadness. I should point out that Tommy and I are outwardly very different. He’s fifteen years younger, a failed actor, has a family life that’s a tragic mess, and speculates in commodities with the last of his money under the spell of a ludicrous man he knows to be a liar and a con artist. He also lives on the Upper West Side during the mid 1950’s and was born not of man and woman but from the imagination of Saul Bellow who breathed life into him through the pages of the novella, “Seize the Day.”
Brave and beautiful essay. (PS next time young you feels lonely, knock on my door. I'm down the hall and to your right. Mi fruit slices eres su fruit slices.)
"What is “deeper than sorrow” and the “heart’s ultimate need?” To me, it’s loneliness and the desperate need for connection. In the funeral parlor, Tommy finally finds a shared connection of loneliness with a dead stranger, for who can be more alone than the dead? This connection with the dead man, fellow sufferer of loneliness, provides an outlet for Tommy to express pity for someone other than himself."
This reminds me of a conversation I had just last week with a former Robinhood employee who was talking about a campaign to encourage people of any means to donate. She mentioned a call received from a person without a home who wanted to share that they had donated a dollar and how meaningful it was to give back to those less fortunate.
Thanks Jen for sharing that story. The impulse to help others is definitely a trait that is pro-survival, meaning that the vast majority of us are genetically selected through the thousands of generations of human history for being part of a cooperative community.
We don't need to be in this abusive relationship anymore with the people corrupting our systems.
Let's demand better, fearlessly, together.
Let's make plans. Let's unite.
https://joshketry.substack.com/p/whats-happening-might-seem-scary
Brave and beautiful essay. (PS next time young you feels lonely, knock on my door. I'm down the hall and to your right. Mi fruit slices eres su fruit slices.)
Touching piece, David!
"What is “deeper than sorrow” and the “heart’s ultimate need?” To me, it’s loneliness and the desperate need for connection. In the funeral parlor, Tommy finally finds a shared connection of loneliness with a dead stranger, for who can be more alone than the dead? This connection with the dead man, fellow sufferer of loneliness, provides an outlet for Tommy to express pity for someone other than himself."
This reminds me of a conversation I had just last week with a former Robinhood employee who was talking about a campaign to encourage people of any means to donate. She mentioned a call received from a person without a home who wanted to share that they had donated a dollar and how meaningful it was to give back to those less fortunate.
Thanks Jen for sharing that story. The impulse to help others is definitely a trait that is pro-survival, meaning that the vast majority of us are genetically selected through the thousands of generations of human history for being part of a cooperative community.
Did the same thing as a kid, mate. Cheers from over here.