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and thank you.

I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

There's a quote by Bell Hooks that I come back to when I'm going through a tough time.

In her book, All About Love, New Visions, she wrote, Rarely, If Ever, Are Any of us healed in isolation?

Healing is an act of communion.

I think we find this thought especially challenging as Americans.

So much of the ideal of the American spirit is about independence and self-reliance.

It's a harmful myth that we are supposed to be able to do most things on our own,

that idea that you can bootstrap your way to security or success or happiness.

We only ask for help if we try to do something alone and fail.

We might only reach out to others as a last resort because we don't want to be a burden or to appear incapable.

But what if the expectation of community was such that we didn't feel like we had to go it alone?

What a relief that would be.

Togetherness is good for us.

It's healthy for our bodies and our minds.

The pandemic certainly showed us what it feels like

...