Organizing one’s address book is always a thankless task. Every year, from my home in Havana, I attack the job of reviewing, page by page, all the names and data that make up my network of personal and professional relationships. Like a tapestry in which I am barely one strand, I review every thread that remains and each thread that was lost. And I find myself facing the alarming evidence of how many people I must subtract.

Read the rest of the article in the New York Times here.