"I've got three words for you, Seth: Star Trek." Bob thought maybe everything that makes us human is longing itself. Richard called it a persistent delusion we should let go of. Tonia said she's grown to view it as a precious sign of vitality. The room was laughing through a lot of this, the kind of playful engagement that comes when people are genuinely wrestling with ideas together.

Last night at Bridge & Tunnel, Fondren asked: What is comfort, and why do we seek it? The conversation explored comfort as spectrum, the difference between comfort and indulgence, whether fights can be rest, how comfort gets weaponized, and if society should cultivate it. We ended without answers—just better questions. Mother Teresa was definitely a one-trick pony.

What are games and why do we play them? We wandered through questions of survival versus pleasure, whether solitaire is a puzzle or a game, how games reflect and reinforce social hierarchies, and why imagination might be the through-line connecting it all. More questions than we started with totally par for the course.