Good morning. The Trump administration accused Colorado and Denver in a lawsuit of impeding its immigration efforts. Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Russia’s three-day cease-fire proposal. And Warren Buffett announced that he will step down as the head of his trillion-dollar conglomerate. More news is below. But first, we look at how people are searching for belonging.
‘Believing’ and belonging
Last week, Dwight from “The Office” called me to talk about God. Almost. It was the actor who played Dwight, Rainn Wilson. He’d read my essay that launched “Believing,” a project on how people find meaning in their lives — in religion, spirituality or anywhere. He’d written a best-selling book on the topic, one that was so self-aware and funny I actually laughed out loud. He just wanted to connect. That seems to be a theme. Since I published “Believing,” I’ve heard from thousands of Morning readers. Everyone has a story to share about belief, no matter how they come at the topic. My inbox is now a microcosm of the internet: MAGA bros, professors, wellness influencers, theologians, climate activists, pop psychologists, grandmothers and a source who sent me an unpublished letter from Pope Francis. I heard from people across America and around the world, including Brazil, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia. In the messages, a clear trend emerged that unites this very disparate group: People crave meaningful connection. In “Believing,” I explained that religion offers people three B’s: beliefs about the world, behaviors to follow and belonging in a community or culture. Readers seized on the last one. They said they wanted to belong — in rich, profound and sustained ways. It makes sense. A major, global study recently released by Harvard and Baylor universities affirmed what so much other data has shown: People flourish — they live happier, healthier and better lives — if they have strong social connections. It also found that religions, for all their reputational baggage, can provide people with robust communities. The power of belongingIn “Believing,” I shared that I once belonged to a strong community — that I was raised Mormon in Arkansas but that I have since left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was vulnerable and weird and hard for me to talk about. Still, it seemed to be a catalyst for connection. Soon, my inbox was filled with personal stories. “She began with a personal testament of her own loss of faith, so forgive me if I too bare my soul,” Richard Dawkins, the famous advocate for atheism, replied in a letter to my article. I heard from Orthodox, secular and Messianic Jews; Catholics, lapsed and practicing; Muslims; Southern Baptists; Unitarian Universalists; Quakers; and Zen Buddhists. I heard from devotees of Alcoholics Anonymous and a secular-humanist organization in Houston. “I also grew up deeply faithful, as the son of a Presbyterian Minister,” the Rev. Duncan Newcomer wrote. “I had a deep love, like you, of the whole thing.” People said very little about God. The topic was simply a gateway to people’s most intimate worlds: childhoods, divorces, diagnoses, deathbed diary entries, unforgetten books and poems and passages. Bill Goodykoontz, from Maine, encouraged me to research “thin places” — spots in the world where people say they can feel something beyond themselves. All the messages point to something bigger. A structural issuePeople need to be in strong communities to flourish, defined as being in a state where all aspects of their lives are good. That’s what the Global Flourishing Study found last week. People are more likely to flourish in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, where people report finding more meaning or purpose in their lives, than those in many more-developed nations. “The negative relationship between meaning and gross domestic product per capita is particularly striking,” they wrote. “We may need a reconsideration of spiritual pathways to well-being.” Kelsey Osgood, an author who was raised without religion, knows this. She converted to Orthodox Judaism in adulthood. She said people in her community offer support to one another reflexively — when someone is sick, hospitalized, grieving. “Everybody knows exactly what to do. Everybody knows where to go. You know what to say,” she said. Osgood said this makes the more taxing elements of religious practice “worth it” to her. The inverse is also true. When people feel exiled from their religious community — because of their politics, their sexuality or their beliefs — they often lose entire worlds. The grief that follows can be comprehensive. Many people stay away from faith communities, often for good. Others decide to come back, which seems to be contributing to the pause of secularization in America. Robert Stempkowski, a 62-year-old writer in Michigan, sent me a 36-page document about his journey with belief. He described a time when he was “shooting himself in the foot” as a “failed husband, absentee father and a drunken, former restaurant critic,” he said. “I was out of bullets and bylines.” He ultimately found his way back to church. I responded to his email and expressed my sincere gratitude that he took the time to write. He replied: “Thanks for letting me share.” Want to receive the next installment of “Believing” in your inbox? Sign up here. For more
Roman Catholic cardinals will gather in the Vatican to pick the next pope this week. We asked Emma Bubola, our colleague covering the conclave in Rome, which candidate is in the lead: “We are hearing lots of names, but the ones that keep coming up are Parolin, Pizzaballa and Tagle,” she said.
For more: The conclave could be more fractious than usual. Pope Francis had appointed a record number of cardinals, which means unfamiliar faces with unfamiliar politics, Jason Horowitz and Emma write.
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A hypothetical debate took over the internet last week: Who would win in a battle between 100 men and one gorilla? The men. Several coordinated and strategic waves of men charging at a gorilla would eventually wear the ape out. The gorilla would “certainly get tired, and probably fairly quickly,” because gorillas are “not endurance athletes” in the way humans are, Stacy Rosenbaum, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan, told Forbes. The gorilla. A mountain gorilla’s muscle mass, and its adaptations to live in high altitudes, would give the ape a clear advantage. The men would be “swatting at him like out-of-breath children, and a single one of his punches would floor them,” Cat Hobaiter, a primatologist at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, told Rolling Stone.
When Spain went dark during a blackout, Paco Cerdà found comfort and joy in the community coming together for support and entertainment. Here is a column by Jamelle Bouie on Trump’s unpopularity. The Games Sale. Our best offer won’t last. Let the fun begin. Subscribe to New York Times Games for up to 75% off your first year. As a subscriber you can strengthen your strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, play the Crossword and more.
Travel: Spend 36 hours in Berlin. Most clicked yesterday: A couple left Queens for Manhattan with $650,000 and a short wish list. Which home did they choose? Play our game. Trending online yesterday: Sovereignty won the 151st Kentucky Derby. The favorite, Journalism, came in second. Vows: They kissed when the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Then they got to know each other. Lives Lived: Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, a soccer-loving nun from Brazil, was believed to be the oldest person in the world. In the year she was born, the Model T was introduced by Henry Ford and insulin had not yet been discovered. Sister Inah died at 116.
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