We carefully edit our personalities, displaying only the most attractive, socially acceptable facets of ourselves, hoping to maintain the illusion of seamless compatibility.

Ultimately, happiness in the modern world may be found not in an escape from suffering, but in a wiser, gentler way of living alongside it.

It is not the grand sorrow of loss or heartbreak but rather a slow, creeping unease—a gentle, existential nausea brought on by the weight of time itself.

From refugee crises in distant lands to the ethical dilemmas of labor practices in factories thousands of miles away, the moral sphere has grown vast and, with it, our sense of responsibility.

They remind us that affection can be measured, that love can be felt even in the spaces where words and gestures do not intrude.