When Friends Are Far Apart (Book: “Love in the Void”, by Simone Weil

Good morning!

I promise all my readers at least one good book recommendation per week, and this is it!

Today’s book is called Love in the Void, by Simone Weil.

For starters: Simone Weil is one of my favorite people ever.

Albert Camus called her “the only great spirit of our time”, and he’s not too far off the mark.

Why do I love this woman so much that I’ve never even met (she starved herself to death in 1943, protesting the Nazi occupation of France)?

First off, she actually listened when you spoke to her.

Everything else dropped away when she was talking to you, and you became the single most important person in the universe for the entire time that your conversation with Simone Weil lasted.

Everyone who’s ever met her has pretty much said the same thing, that when she was with you, she was actually *with* you. Deeply.

That kind of attention is exceptionally rare in any day and age, but in ours it’s almost unheard of.

But it’s her commitment to moral ideals, and the fact that she followed through with what she said was important to her, regardless of the personal cost, that is one of the reasons…