An Alternative to Cosmopolitanism
When people use the term today in casual conversation, “cosmopolitan” generally refers to a person whose disposition is one of urbane sophistication, not blinkered...
Patriot Games
Holland, MI
As our nation - what? sprints? strides? stumbles? limps? - toward its 238th birthday, we prepare once again for our great patriotic festivities....
Walker Percy and the Recovery of Place
In a 2009 article in the New York Times, the travel writer Henry Shukman admitted that he was “disappointed” the first time he saw...
Fences, Vines, Bees, and Huge Chickens
Hidden Springs Lane. We’re building fence this summer. I purchased 150 eight foot posts and we’ve been slowly planting them. We’re putting a paddock...
Vulgar Adolescent Bigness Fetishizers
I reflected what a Mortification it must prove to me to appear as inconsiderable in this Nation as one single Lilliputian would be among...
Love: Needs, Risks, Opportunities
Love – it draws out the timeworn clichés and greeting card verse in us, yet it is serious and necessary and hard. Without it,...
Roots Along the River
Historically, the locals have called Pompaples, Switzerland the “milieu du monde.” Not to be confused as a claim about its importance as a cultural...
Soylent: It’s What’s for Dinner (and Lunch and Breakfast)
Hidden Springs Lane. What if you never had to worry about food again? Possible answers: 1) Wow! Think of all the time I can...
Thoughts on a Graduation Weekend
“We have a world bursting with new ideas, new plans, and new hopes. The world was never so young as it is today, so...
Mapping A Melancholy Soul: A Review of Leil Leibovitz’s A Broken...
Leonard Cohen occupies an unusual position in popular music history. He is routinely neglected by those “Best of the 60's” nostalgia-fests you see on...