Today, in the world of short sound bites, computer and visual media, and technological input from cell phones, text messaging and the media in general, the emphasis on the "human touch", so central to shared communication and the exchange of ideas, is an "endangered species". Above all, Shapiro's work provides us with the opportunity to learn what it is to actively turn toward others and think and feel with them in a mutal process of sustained high-quality attention, characteristic of what he has identified as reflective inquiry.