We feel safe, huddled within human institutions — churches, banks, madrigal groups — but these concoctions melt away at the basic moment. The self’s responsibility, then, is to achieve rapport if not rapture with the giant, cosmic other: to appreciate, let’s say, the walk back from the mailbox.

John Updike (1932-2009) American writer

Self-Consciousness: Memoirs, closing words (1989)