Morgan Tatum > Recent Status Updates

“I was an adult and I still was walking around with a constant feeling that I was about to get into trouble. I was an adult and I still assumed other people’s bad moods were automatically my fault, and that I was personally responsible for managing and fixing their emotions.”

“There is a ‘God-shaped hole’ in every human heart. Or, at least, many people feel a yearning for meaning, connection, and spiritual elevation. A phone-based life often fills that hole with trivial and degrading content.“ I find it great that, though the author is an atheist, there are many mentions of how beneficial religiosity is

“Yet one of the hallmarks of the Great Rewiring is that children and adolescents now spend far less time at outside, and when they are outside, they’re looking at their phone. If they encounter something beautiful, their first instinct is to take a photograph or video, perhaps to post somewhere. Few are open to losing themselves [and feel awe] in the moment.”

“Social media is a fountain of bedevilments. It trains people to think in ways that are exactly contrary to the world’s wisdom traditions: think about yourself first; be materialistic, judgmental, boastful, and petty; seek glory as quantified by likes and followers (…) we need to turn down the things in our lives that bind us tightly to our egos, such as time on social media.” Amen.

“Well-intentioned parents who try to raise their children in a bubble of satisfaction, protected from frustration, consequences, and negative emotions, maybe harming their children. They may be blocking the development of competence, self-control, frustration tolerance, and emotional self management. Several studies find that such “coddling” is correlated with later anxiety disorders (..)”

No company could ever take our children away and endanger them without our consent, or they would face massive liabilities. Right?

“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he, is how rich he is, how fine of a family he comes from, that white man is trash.”

“‘(…) it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you. So don’t let Mrs. Dubose get you down. She had enough troubles of her own.”

Here in America, Asian history is often overlooked. We skip over the rich culture, the tenacity of Chinese civilians, and the intricate political mechanisms that marked the 20th century. I am hopeful to better educate myself with this book, but as a person with little prior knowledge to this subject, I’m afraid I bit off more than I can chew. The author writes above my reading level (but in an admirable way!)

Entertaining so far, although the author introduces a variety of important characters quickly in the beginning, so it can be challenging to remember as the story progresses. Also the author’s prose is very formal (fitting, as the setting takes place in the 18th-century) which can be confusing for a modern-day reader like myself to discern.

The world lost a great surgeon, but Heaven gained an angel. The medical world is robbed of doctors with Kalanithi’s degree of selflessness and love. It feels cruel to rate this late author’s memoir and comment on how confusing his prose was to follow at times, but his character gets a 5-star rating though.