Which is Also a Good Strategy

Alan Alda: When someone says something we disagree with and we correct them strongly, was it really important to correct them for the sake of the discussion, or were we just getting off on it?

Pope Francis: Then the nurse would take me aside and say the children hadn’t been to see them in six months.

Alda: Yeah. Which is also a good strategy.

Francis: I’m going to dare to offer some advice.

Alda: My advice is to try to not give too much advice.

•••

Francis: Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that eighteen months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted?

Alda: You stick in an emoji to make it clear you’re not being snarky or sarcastic or rude, but that you mean what you said as a lighthearted thing.

Francis: I’m living this as a time of great uncertainty.

Alda: You gotta adjust to the uncertainties.

Francis: That is the throwaway culture in practice. It’s been well thought out.

•••

Alda: I forget. No, last year was Schumann and Brahms, and before that it was Mozart.

Francis: A photo appeared the other day of a parking lot in Las Vegas where they had been put in quarantine.

Alda: The idea that we feel good when we’re punishing somebody is a really interesting discovery, I think.

Francis: My major concern—at least what comes through my prayer—is how to accompany and be closer to the people of God.

Alda: Well, you get a tube and you solder it to a motor and stick it over a glass.