James Baldwin on Shakespeare:

“The greatest poet in the English language found his poetry where poetry is found: in the lives of the people. He could have done this only through love — by knowing … that whatever was happening to anyone was happening to him,” 

“It is said that [Shakespeare’s] time was easier than ours, but I doubt it — no time can be easy if one is living through it.”

Isn't this so true. Why going to Thailand, I wonder while the woman besides me tells about her next holidays, when you don't even talk with your Turkish neighbor? Or the Thai woman serving your noodle soup with crispy nems? I am sure she has a lot of stories to tell. Don't get me wrong, one has to change context once in a while to see things through a new perspective. But isn't a little worrying that even though we have never been connected to more people on the planet, traveled so relentlessly and eaten so multicultural as ever before and still people don't seem to show a spectacular increase of compassion. It certainly is a challenge in the Era of facebook-friends-for-ever.