flâneur

life is other people - by Valerie - club reticent

clubreticent.substack.com · 1,017 words · saved by 1 readers

The internet wants you safe in your room, clicking ragebait articles or succumbing to curation. The system runs on you having to spend more money to stave off emptiness. Decenter, disengage, detach, deny. They may attempt to orchestrate a faux humiliation ritual, breaking the fourth wall to inquire if needing the presence of another is embarrassing, if putting another first is a circus interlude, if opening your heart is surgically invasive. But antisocial pedagogy won’t do. You’ve got two hands to touch things that aren’t your clothes on a hanger. You’ve got two eyes to look at things beyond the mirror. Life as service, life as arms extended wide left and right, stranger or lover. I love you, therefore I see you, therefore I center you. You have both my undivided attention and my capacity to examine your faults and beauty with compassion. Taking care of you is not a means to an end, not an offering to Ceres, not a plug and play dopamine chase – it’s a choice I’m making every day, cros

The internet wants you safe in your room, clicking ragebait articles or succumbing to curation. The system runs on you having to spend more money to stave off emptiness. Decenter, disengage, detach, deny. They may attempt to orchestrate a faux humiliation ritual, breaking the fourth wall to inquire if needing the presence of another is embarrassing, if putting another first is a circus interlude, if opening your heart is surgically invasive. But antisocial pedagogy won’t do. You’ve got two hands to touch things that aren’t your clothes on a hanger. You’ve got two eyes to look at things…

related reading