Tag: friendship

How to Make and Lose Friends (& Influence a Few People):...

I guess that paradox is what intrigues me about Carry and Dale’s differing personal constitutions and methodologies. I see them appealing to all of us in different ways—whether we have many friends or few, whether our influence is recognized or not—to embark upon the truly influential gift of friendship.

The Front Porch as a Way of Seeing: A Review of...

There is a significant difference between staring at a computer screen and seeing the world through a porch screen. Hailey emphasizes the benefits of seeing from the “threshold between stability and precariousness,” which is nothing like viewing the world from the comfort of a couch in an air-conditioned room, even if the porch is also comfortable.

“Oh, Wow.” A Benediction for Ed McClanahan

Immortality might not last forever. But I contend that Ed will—through his words and through the lives of those he touched with his generosity and his grace. All of which leads, to a simple blessing, a benediction. “Oh, wow.”

Remembered Relationships: A Review of John Berryman and Robert Giroux: A...

As the late historian John Lukacs would insist, all stories as we know them and retell them are remembered. This means they are, inherently, personal. John Berryman and Robert Giroux: A Publishing Friendship is no exception.

Sparking Little Platoons

When I became a Washington, D.C. newsroom intern, Twitter usage was mandatory (primarily so that we could help run the magazine’s Twitter account). I...

The Theological Need for Mediation: Considerations from Alexis de Tocqueville

During a class I was teaching at our parish last fall, a woman pulled me aside afterwards to ask a question. The woman was...

What Aristotle Says about Christmas

My piece at Ethika Politika: Aristotle's Key to Christmas

Living with Former Friends

“Surely he should keep a remembrance of their former intimacy…” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Sometimes it feels like Aristotle foresaw all the vicissitudes of my life....

Auld Lame Side

This is what we all need now: a deep belly-laugh.

Now Let Us Raze Famous Men

He was looking at me with what appeared to be some degree of disbelief.