[...] Consider David Cusk, the compulsively sweaty accountant: as he seeks release from self-obsession through what is essentially an inner thermostat to regulate his temperature, he replies to all those solipsistic hoarders of energy who have preceded him, from Lenore Sr. (who lacks such an inner thermostat) to Fogle (who keeps an external one on high). Cusk knows that paying attention to things outside him, things other than his fear of an "attack," can stem his sweat's flow but also that such outward attention is heavy lifting: "Paying attention to anything but the fear was like hoisting something heavy with a pulley and rope--you could do it, but it took effort, and you got tired, and the minute you slipped you were back paying attention to the last thing you wanted to" (PK 320). Cusk is learning here the concluding lesson of This Is Water: the willed choice to pay attention is the "job of a lifetime, and it commences--now," taking up every minute of every day, the call to real American work (TW 136).