What’s a Localist to Do?
Hidden Springs Lane. It’s not easy being a localist. Vladimir Putin has taken Crimea and many in the West are afraid that he has...
Of Bees and Moonshine
Hidden Springs Lane. In the spring of 2012, I started keeping bees. The first thing to notice is that people do not raise bees...
The Crafting of the Fourteenth Amendment
Several years ago, after driving past the impressively proportioned Harrison County Courthouse in my hometown of Cadiz for the hundredth time, I thought I...
Rock n’ Roll, Inc: The Power Source Behind America’s Founding and...
It is often said that Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1839 essay, “Self Reliance”, is the real American Declaration of Independence, and to a certain extent...
Mumford and Suns
“For a child”, I remember our priest saying a few years ago, ”the sun rises over the barn and sets on the further side...
Imagining Healthy Work: Why We all Have to Become Monks
This essay was originally presented at Spring Arbor University’s annual Focus series.
I am speaking today not as a literature specialist, nor as a professional...
They Been Here
“You don’t say that,” my grandfather was telling me, gently but with obvious annoyance, as I’d just embarrassed him. We were walking out of...
The Patron Saint of Place
For several decades now, the business plan of fast-food chains has been to build restaurants with a similar design: a drive through around the...
What I Saw at the High School Speech Meet
Here in northwest Indiana, I agreed to be a judge for a recent regional speech meet, partly because our middle daughter was a contestant...
A Man’s Home Is His Castle
Hidden Springs Lane. After too long, I finally got around to watching The Castle (1997), a film recommended by FPR’s Jeff Polet. It’s a...