For those of us who can’t watch sad or scary things (Simona, this is for you!) here is a New York Times article, The Benefits of Despair, suggesting that’s the reason why we are activists. “A feeling of general badness calls for no specific actions, you feel lousy and trapped by your circumstances.” But with what Lisa Feldman Barrett calls “higher emotional granularity,” you might react with a “more specific emotion, such as righteous indignation, which entails the possibility of specific action…You are no longer an overwhelmed spectator but an active participant.”

Yesterday’s Not in Our Town Princeton’s Unity Awards Ceremony, where we heard the inspiring stories of eight activist young people, ratcheted up my “emotional granularity.” Hurray, hurray, and hurray! Read about it here.