Holden Caulfield, the 16-year-old “hero” of The Catcher in the Rye, goes to the park mentally or physically on seven separate occasions in the course of the relatively short novel. | Continue reading
Despite the surplus of enchantment discourse these days, the excellent parts of the book are indeed excellent. | Continue reading
Mine is not a left-wing voice of animal rights idealism or return-to-the-land idyllicism. This is just plain old real science. | Continue reading
In Oklahoma, the nature many of us live so close to is a different thing from the concept of “nature” we have internalized. | Continue reading
Bianca Bosker dives into the weird and disturbing world of making creatures. | Continue reading
A happy life is not something out there in the future. It’s not something you make, even. | Continue reading
I can’t help but notice that DEI might be the perfect solution to the politicization of the academy in general, and of the humanities and social sciences in particular. | Continue reading
You have to cut through the glitzy, loud elements—the carnival rides and the tractor pulls and the cotton candy—to see the heart of the fair... | Continue reading
Dependent Rational Animals offers both a satisfying philosophical exclamation point and a sorely needed ethical and political vision appropriate for the struggles of our own day. | Continue reading
If we are serious about sustainability, we need to rethink where and how we apply pressure. | Continue reading
Friendship is a fulfillment of our nature: the recognition that loving another for their own sake is, paradoxically, itself essential to our own flourishing. | Continue reading
"In fact, MacIntyre’s work is extreme, but we live in extreme times." | Continue reading
What exactly is health? What do we mean by that word? What is a proper understanding of it? | Continue reading
We live under the impression that we can do for the human community and the individual human soul what physicists have done with the atom. | Continue reading
He decides to write about his experience. Two earlier novels were dismal affairs. But now in 1927, over the course of a few months, he fills each page with pain and sorrow | Continue reading
For most people, that’s where their focus on their image ends—they’ve made themselves presentable. But for some, that morning routine was only the beginning. | Continue reading
Impressed by this unusual way of cultivating community in a city—NYC, that is—known for its “alone together” anonymity, I decided to reach out | Continue reading
In quiet Ottawa County, Michigan, a water crisis is not merely brewing—it is already here. | Continue reading
Politics, at its best, requires those willing to risk greatness. | Continue reading
“Remembering Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025).” Christopher Kaczor remembers the life and legacy of his teacher: “I have never met, nor do I ever expect to meet, a philosopher as fascinating as the author of After Virtue. If we are waiting for Godot, he may well arrive before anoth … | Continue reading
Via Alan Jacobs, I’ve learned that Alasdair MacIntyre passed away on Thursday, at the age of 96. Unlike other philosophers, theologians, and political theorists I’ve written memorials to on my blog over the years, MacIntyre’s work—which engaged deeply with issues of ethics, Arist … | Continue reading
His hands remind me of a topographical map. Even now with their nail scars, do Jesus’ hands bear also the marks that come with age and years as a craftsman? | Continue reading
Trust in rural places isn’t built on virtue; it’s built on visibility. It’s knowing you’ll see the person again. | Continue reading
There is no law preventing us from being worthy pupils of the spring rains, the dead, and the plants. We can mind first principles; we can keep our hands off the principal. | Continue reading
Amateur operations are fragile and tenuous. But we’re grateful for a much-improved virtual home. | Continue reading
How much longer will we prioritize a Wild West notion of freedom over protecting children and teens? The truth is, like cigarettes and alcohol, these devices are incompatible with healthy childhood development. | Continue reading
Though we may choose to live out our lives differently upon the land, there remain in both places people who still care for and respect land and community. I have learned much from the Spanish way of life that I hope to apply to my own life, in a way appropriate to my place and c … | Continue reading
“The Good Life, According to Gen Z.” Madeleine Kearns talks with several Gen Zers who, in good Porcher fashion, left the big-city corporate rat race to move back home: “In college, Zosha’s goal had always been to move to Los Angeles to become a screenwriter, with her high school … | Continue reading
We are pilgrims in this world. We must be content to wonder as we wander. Douthat is asking his readers to cast their nets into the deep. | Continue reading
Every year that we farm in the old ways, more of nature returns, despite the mistakes we make. Each return teaches hope. | Continue reading
The laughter of a faithless culture is bitter, derisive. It no longer springs from a merry heart but from dry bones. A culture of faith is a culture that can truly laugh. | Continue reading
My miracles are many, too many to count or explain. Maybe yours are too. | Continue reading
To throw pedagogical punches is not to berate students; it’s to engage them in the ring. Most of them just need a nudge, a little jab that’s meant to be blocked. | Continue reading
A person cannot multitask while performing it; instead, all else disappears, and only the person for whom one is caring in this physical way remains the focus for several minutes | Continue reading
“How Major League Baseball Lost its Soul.” Bill Kauffman may be biased, but at least he’s honest: “I highly recommend Homestand, Will Bardenwerper’s new book contrasting the community-enhancing qualities of grass-roots baseball with the soulless corporate product that Major Leagu … | Continue reading
My mom knew that she could not transfer the entire corpus of Western thought to us because she didn’t have it. But she did have love | Continue reading
It's entirely possible that many will give up human relationships, turning instead to the safety and predictability of technology, like an AI companion | Continue reading
Classroom culture may develop accidentally, but the truth is that a neutral classroom does not exist. Although her apologia is intended for classical Christian educators, Gerth speaks to all teachers | Continue reading
Over the decades, I suppose I learned a lot from podcasts; plenty of facts and all the “sides” to stories. Very little of those things seem to matter to me now | Continue reading
I’ve heated with wood for a winter, and I am pleased to do so, but it’s backbreaking labor to warm this way for a lifetime | Continue reading
The politics of Jesus are “brutally modest.” “Jesus’ life seems to have been mostly one of local, familial labor and relations, carried out in the compass of a small town or village . . . | Continue reading
“We are Letting Schools Poison our Children.” Hadley Freeman has some harsh (but accurate) critiques of ed tech: “You don’t need to be Mr Gradgrind to be repulsed by this gamification of learning, which accelerated during Covid and has never stopped. Giving children cheap dopamin … | Continue reading
Although my vision, and my neck, and my sense of balance, and certainly my sense of hope, were all impaired, I could still prune. And as I pruned, I reflected on the three trees that once grew near my childhood home ... | Continue reading
If we are willing to listen, we might be able to learn what we are listening for. Not just a deeper connection to our humanity, or a meditative appreciation of existence, as lovely and important as those things may be. | Continue reading
Those who had previously greeted me with smiles and handshakes find ways to hint through word and deed that I am no longer one of them ... | Continue reading
The one observation on which all the Brothers focused with most interest, though, was what I might describe as the words beyond words. These poems are not just about a stone in the road and snow falling on a dark evening ... | Continue reading
As I picked up litter, I had ample time to reflect upon the stunning parallels between human pollution and sin. | Continue reading
But the attacks on higher education are also part of a broader trend, which devalues work itself, especially work motivated by love | Continue reading