Occasions

"Intimacy between two persons does not require knowing the details of each other’s life; it glows in moments of true awareness and exchange. Each intimate exchange has a locale which partakes in the quality of the human encounter. There are as many intimate places as there are occasions where human beings truly connect. What are such places like? They are elusive and personal. They may be etched in the recesses of memory and yield intense satisfaction upon recall, but they are not recorded like snapshots in the family album, nor perceived as general symbols like fireplace, chair, bed and living room that invite intricate explication. One can no more deliberately design such places than one can plan, with any guarantee of success, the occasions of genuine human exchange.” - Yi Fu Tuan, Space and Place