Shards of found tile, figure studies, fine-art reproductions, yesterday’s papers, life drawings, album covers, museum drawings, a potted ivy, photos of friends passed, and a pile of discarded wood—these are fragments of life. They are evidence of a variety of experiences. They are guests arriving and slipping away from a gathering. Sometimes they have urgent and important things to say. Sometimes they are bores. Sometimes they are loud; they argue and interrupt one another. Sometimes they are wallflowers. But to listen to the conversation and remain attentive to everyone’s point of view—to stay alive and awake so that we may distinguish the true and relevant from the false and complacent—is the job. This is the stuff of life, and we work in the hope that we can truly, honestly understand ourselves, our experiences, and our place within it all by listening, by looking.