While reading the new translation of Dietrich Von Hildebrand’s memoir My Battle Against Hitler, translated and edited by John Henry Crosby with John F. Crosby, there came this admonition from Hildebrand, newly exiled in 1933, and at this moment in Paris:

“It is remarkable how deeply we can be become trapped in our own inner world and how much this diminishes our ability, if we are not sufficiently prepared, to open ourselves to significant encounters, which are a gift from God.  We focus on what lies immediately ahead, on our plans, and on those people we already know and will see tomorrow.  As a result we fail to approach those we do not yet know well with sufficient attentiveness to be able to grasp their importance fully.”