Jennifer Sakash

“How do you deal with being sad when someone dies? You cry, you talk, you let it out. Those tears are all the love you had left to give. Grief is all the love you have left to give. So you let it out. Love will always connect you to those you lose.”
― M.Z. Emily Zack, The Moorings of Mackerel Sky

“First of all, rest is for babies and relaxation is for retired people.”
― Arnold Schwarzenegger, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life

“I wondered why it was that I had so many irritating people in my life.”
― Anne Tyler

“Every day, we’re exposed to graphic media coverage reminding us of our collapsing environment, increased threat of nuclear war, coming pandemics, genocide, the world’s endless atrocities. All of this triggers the brain’s terror management strategy to run in the background, at a low level—not yet in fight-or-flight mode, but…anticipating the worst. In essence, the more terrifying our world becomes, the more time we spend preparing subconsciously for death.” Nagel looked uncertain where all this was going. “Prepare for death…how?” “I think the answer to that will surprise you,” Katherine said. “It certainly did me. While researching mortality salience and the brain, I found that an increased fear of death produced a consistent array of behavioral responses—all of them selfish.” “I’m sorry?” “Fear makes us selfish,” Katherine said. “The more we fear death, the more we cling to ourselves, our belongings, our safe spaces…to that which is familiar. We exhibit increased nationalism, racism, and religious intolerance. We flout authority, ignore social mores, steal from others to provide for ourselves, and become more materialistic. We even abandon our feelings of environmental responsibility because we sense the planet is a lost cause and we’re all doomed anyway.” “That’s alarming,” Nagel said. “Those are precisely the behaviors that fuel global unrest, terrorism, cultural division, and war.” “Yes, and that make the CIA’s job so difficult. Unfortunately, it becomes a hall of mirrors. The worse things get, the worse we behave. And the worse we behave, the worse things get.”
― Dan Brown, The Secret of Secrets