The extraordinary unlikeliness of us I mentioned in my Saturday walking composition a video that my journalist friend— Bethany Bell, who works for the BBC—made back in March about lockdown in Rome. I couldn’t find… Read more

Life is long, complex, and beautiful “What I am trying to tell you is that I am not an easy going gardener and there are people who say they enjoy it and they are liars,… Read more

I’ve been thinking a lot about free speech recently, possibly due to over-exposure over the last few years to podcasters like Sam Harris, Joe Rogan, and the like* (also known as “thought leaders,” a phrase… Read more

Education and being human “We have to stop trying to make our children fit into the world that they find themselves in, and start creating a world that fits them.” —Sherrie Mitchell, Sacred Instructions Yesterday… Read more

Empathy and anger “The most important work today, the action most needed to be taken by each of us, is work across boundaries, across differences. . . . Anything that gets in the way of… Read more

I finished reading Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah very quickly after opening it over the weekend. Which for me is always a nice… Read more

Snow selves “We’re dealing with a concept that is based on illusion that has created a sickness within our minds, that has taught us to view ourselves as nothing more than a commodity that can… Read more

The rowan tree “An early-morning walk is a blessing for a whole day.” — Henry David Thoreau I was rereading Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series last week, one of those childhood favorites that’s… Read more

Whose stories are held to be a reflection of who “we” are? Every now and then I come across a comment about my book that mentions its glaring lack of Henry David Thoreau. (Is it… Read more

Raining time It rained yesterday, hard and cold and fast. I got caught out in it just as I was finishing walking the dog. I’d seen the storm coming from over the mountains and thought… Read more