What is attention?

Announcing a series of discussions, mini-lectures, meditations, and more—all addressing the question of attention. That most precious resource—most weaponized, most monetized, most exploited, most exalted.

These are free of charge, low-stakes, and motivated by the desire to pursue understanding collectively. I know it’s hard to care right now. It’s hard to feel, hard to think, hard to exist, even if we know how lucky we are to have the luxury of thinking, feeling, and existing. Our attention is pulled in a thousand different directions at once, and it’s enough to drive anyone mad.

This is why I decided to use what I’ve been building with intensives (collective reading, writing, thinking workshops) to invite other people to address the question of attention. For the past couple years, people have shown up in my inbox to ask for help finding resources, making connections, thinking harder, and reading and writing from new perspectives—and this past year it simply reached a critical mass. It was time to do something and to make sure it was free and as accessible as possible.

As I was telling friends at dinner the other night, what good is my teaching and working experience, my doctorate, my writing, my living engagement with unanswerable questions if I can’t find a way to use everything within my reach to respond to the earnest requests of fellow seekers?

First up in the series is Mac Loftin, a scholar of politics and theology at Harvard. He will lead us through an analysis of The Trojan Women, the classic Greek tragedy by Euripides, and together we’ll ask some questions about attention and its relationship to war and violence.

If you want to join us for any of these (and there are many more lined up!!!), you can sign up here. These are all happening on Sundays throughout the summer and into the fall. More info available upon registration.

Stay well out there, friends and strangers. Stay sharp.