You’re very kind, Jack, thank you so much! And thank you for all your insights as well, it really is always a pleasure. I also find myself frustrated when looking for people with whom to read a text, as they seem, as you indicated, to sort of stop at the face value and miss what it points to— to privilege the photograph of a location over looking for and exploring the place itself, so to speak.

I think the bottom line here is precisely as you put it, that we relate to the rest of our world as a sacred Thou rather than a sterile It, and that changes how we engage things. Indeed, treating the world like an It does seem to lead to Metzinger’s idea of naive realism (glad you enjoyed that book, by the way, it’s one of my favorites); it’s much like how Nietzsche described truth as a woman and philosophers as bumbling men who wouldn’t know how to court her if they tried, but instead resort to perversion and “handsy” tactics. Treating the world like an It gives us the illusion that it’s just an object splayed out before us, awaiting our analysis and even judgment; meeting the world as another Thou, though, means treating it like a person, being willing to negotiate and even woo it, to gradually learn and unlearn through conversation and common experience, and to be willing to show love and learn more about love. A really fantastic point, I-Thou.