You've said many times that you want people around you who are more sensitive and whose feelings are closer to the surface. Yet how do you respond when you actually encounter them? I suggest you observe yourself carefully over the next few weeks and see what you notice. You have a few choices for what to do. One is to go into paralysis mode—to freeze up, to put on a façade, to go passive. Another is to push them away. Neither of these is likely to be what you want, but they're fairly typical responses to those who in some way "threaten" us by being willing to feel. Another is to engage with them directly, no matter how uncomfortable it may make you. In this context, uncomfortable equates to vulnerable. I am describing one of the core crises of our culture, one that is largely being driven by our relationship to technology. In the world as it is, it's easy to avoid just about anything, it's easy to have the feeling of control (for example, by ignoring someone's communications) and therefore easy to weave yourself into a state of isolation. In this sense, obsession with text messages is not so different from obsession with porn. One of the prices you pay to get out of this is allowing authentic contact to happen when you have the opportunity, which always happens today, not tomorrow.
