I’ve been letting that quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates rattle around in my head a bit the last 24 hours, and it brought this quote to mind from the wonderful movie Lady Bird:

Sister Sarah Joan (SSJ): “You clearly love Sacramento.”
Lady Bird (LB): “I do?”
SSJ: “You write about Sacramento so affectionately, and with such care.”
LB: “Well, I was just describing it.”
SSJ: “Well, it comes across as love”.
LB: “Sure, I guess I pay attention.”
SSJ: “Don’t you think maybe they are the same thing — love and attention?”

Coates laments the lack of curiosity by those in great power of those with none. Another way to say that, I think, is that the lack of curiosity is demonstrated in a lack of attention. And, to riff on the thought from Lady Bird, that lack of attention reveals a lack of love.

To put it conversely: curiosity about our neighbor should result in paying attention to our neighbor, which should then result in us loving our neighbor.

Amen.

(Personal commentary: my wife is such an excellent model of this for me. She’s inordinately curious about people, including/especially our immediate physical neighbors. That curiosity results in attention and actual demonstrated love for those people. I could learn a lot from her.)