The Shoulders of Strangers

Art by Daisy Adams

What’s missing in seeing a film on television is a central component of what it means to be human — the assembly. Whether it’s at a church, at a play or at the movies, the idea of losing your identity at a gathering of others — known or unknown to you — while sharing a common experience, a journey, an event, is uniquely human, and in my opinion we abandon such practices at our peril. Gatherings are important, and certainly better than going through life with ear buds. Never mind the theology or medium in question, concentrate on the part where you rub shoulders with strangers.

— Nicholas Meyer, The View from the Bridge