I'm thinking on one of my favourite excerpts today. Probably time to revisit an Iris Murdoch novel (this is from The Nice and the Good; a few others are coming to mind a lot as of late).

All our striving, all the mess we bring to interactions... and no good medium to hold back the worst of it all. Our fears. Our all-consuming needs.

We will trip over each other's wounds relentlessly.

The best we can do is notice when we start to err, and find the courage not to let it unravel us all the more.