Recovering from recent emergency surgery to repair a torn retina, I am reminded once again of the fragility and contingency of our lives. I had been in New York City, having dinner with old friends. We were enjoying a restaurant […]
Freedom is a worthy goal: the slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus said it was in fact the highest virtue, and over the course of human history many millions have perished seeking it, attaining it, or defending it. But, if you’re lucky enough to […]
We all spend way too much time on zoom these days. All that time spent staring at a small screen, with small images of other people doing the same thing, talking about very specific issues, can produce tunnel-vision and tunnel-thinking: […]
Archimedes famously boasted that, were he to have a lever long enough and a place to stand, he could move the Earth. A bit over-dramatic, perhaps, but he was (theoretically) correct – with a properly-placed lever, many seemingly-impossible tasks become […]
I stood at the top of Marx, a wryly-named double-black-diamond expert ski trail at the peak of Big Sky’s Lone Mountain, over 11,000 feet above sea level. I had worked myself up to this over a week of skiing with […]
The crucial role of courage in personal freedom I don’t think of myself as a “courageous” person, at least not in a stereotypical way. We tend to think of “courage” as an attribute of firefighters, of the men and women […]
This past weekend, I attended a wake and service for the daughter of a cousin of mine. She had been ill for several years, but her passing was still a shock for both her extended and especially her immediate family: […]
