{"id":680,"date":"2022-01-31T22:25:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T22:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/?p=680"},"modified":"2022-02-25T19:48:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T19:48:29","slug":"nyt-oped-my-young-mind-was-disturbed-by-a-book-it-changed-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/?p=680","title":{"rendered":"NYT-OPED Comments: My Young Mind Was Disturbed by a Book. It Changed My Life."},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.6.5&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; theme_builder_area=&#8221;post_content&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.9.0&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;|||4px||&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; theme_builder_area=&#8221;post_content&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.25&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;|||&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; custom_padding__hover=&#8221;|||&#8221; theme_builder_area=&#8221;post_content&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.6.5&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; theme_builder_area=&#8221;post_content&#8221;]<!-- divi:paragraph -->\n<p>\u00a0<a data-testid=\"story-section\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/29\/opinion\/culture\/book-banning-viet-thanh-nguyen.html\">Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0\">\n<h1 id=\"link-478fbb48\" class=\"css-19rw7kf e1h9rw200\" data-test-id=\"headline\"><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<h1 id=\"link-3caedbfc\" class=\"css-15m43iq e1h9rw200\" data-testid=\"headline\">My Young Mind Was Disturbed by a Book. It Changed My Life.<\/h1>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"My Young Mind Was Disturbed by a Book. It Changed My Life.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/svc\/oembed\/html\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2022%2F01%2F29%2Fopinion%2Fculture%2Fbook-banning-viet-thanh-nguyen.html#?secret=KrnbFGTT0f\" data-secret=\"KrnbFGTT0f\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Louisa Gallas | Michigan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thank you, Mr. Nguyen, for pointing out how book banning narrows empathy for \u2018the other\u2019. How American need to strengthen their ability to tolerate the truth of our history. The discomfort of difference. To be able to discuss at school boards and the PTA more generously what people find disturbing or life-giving in controversial books. Research has shown that people who read fiction do, indeed, expand their empathy for the characters and situations unknown or alien to them. As a therapist and poet, I think the deep backstory of this crisis around book banning, CRT, the fear of \u2018discomfort\u2019 shows how fragile people are, how easily we freeze our beliefs about others. How little skill and fortitude we have in difficult dialogue so we run from conflict. The \u2018other\u2019 comes up with friends, family where empathy gets disappeared in favor of estrangement. The current divisions over books lean toward an even deeper backstory. The need to demean others as inferior or exaggerate them as a menace. James Baldwin spoke piercingly about empathy. \u201cWhy do you need me to be a N-R, because I am a man.\u201d And Thich Nhat Hanh wrote such wise words about our interconnections and the personal work we must do to achieve empathy. \u201cYou are me, and I am you;Isn\u2019t it obvious we inter-are. You cultivate the flower in yourself so I will be beautiful. I transform the garbage in myself so you will not suffer.\u201d His books changed my life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/divi:paragraph -->[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Opinion My Young Mind Was Disturbed by a Book. It Changed My Life. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/29\/opinion\/culture\/book-banning-viet-thanh-nguyen.html Louisa Gallas | Michigan Thank you, Mr. Nguyen, for pointing out how book banning narrows empathy for \u2018the other\u2019. How American need to strengthen their ability to tolerate the truth of our history. The discomfort of difference. To be able to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awake-to-whiteness","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":767,"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisalovegallas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}