The Comfort Book

“We stay precisely as alive and precisely as human as we were the day we were born. The only thing we need is to exist. And to hope.”

Haig points out that while most people look fondly upon babies, they often do not extend the same courtesy to themselves. This is unfortunate, Haig suggests, because all people are still babies in the sense of having room to grow and become. Additionally, Haig makes it clear that babies are complete as they are and have nothing to prove. He reminds readers that this is also true of all humans, no matter their age.

“If we keep going in a straight line, we’ll get out of here.”

When Haig and his father were lost in the woods, Haig’s father offered these words, which ultimately brought them to a main road that directed them home. These words shed light on what to do not only when geographically lost, but also when existentially lost. One must move forward and press on without overthinking. Merely by placing one foot in front of the other, a person will find their way out of despair; the anecdote provides figurative reason for Finding Comfort in Simplicity.

“The pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

This quote by Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius supports Haig’s argument that although people cannot control what happens to them, they can control the way they perceive it. Perspective—internal attitude toward external events—shapes much of human experience.