Photo by George W. Ackerman

Leisure, Suburbs, and a Wild Public Square

“Magnolia Silos to Host Church Under The Bridge during I-35 Work.” Mike Copeland narrates a unique church’s temporary relocation. Having attended Church Under the Bridge, I can attest that it’s a remarkable…

Magnolia Silos to Host Church Under The Bridge during I-35 Work.” Mike Copeland narrates a unique church’s temporary relocation. Having attended Church Under the Bridge, I can attest that it’s a remarkable community.

Big Lakes, Small Ripples.” Joseph Bottum finds the furor of the online news machine is dampened by the time it reaches South Dakota: “There’s a metaphor there, I suppose, in the way the white wake of the motorboats out in the middle of the lake turns to a small wash, a gentle swell, by the time it reaches the shore. Events in the national news are like this, in the small towns of the Midwest.”

We Weren’t Made for Endless Work.” Gracy Olmstead relearns the vital need for leisure from her two-year-old daughter.

OPEC Predicts Massive Rise in Oil Production over Next Five Years.” Adam Vaughan reports on the certainly biased but nonetheless disturbing forecasts OPEC released.

Time to Move On.” Josephine Crawley Quinn relates how Greek and Latin became “classics.”

The Love Of Building – In Praise Of The Permanent Things.” The new Carmelite monastery going up in Fairfield, Pennsylvania is being built to last. (Recommended by Jeff Polet.)

The Suburbs Can’t Be Blamed for Everything.” Patrick Brown takes up the defense of the much-maligned suburbs.

Against Civility, or Why Habermas Recommends a Wild Public Sphere.” Steven Kline suggests that perhaps civility and the preservation of “norms” are not marks of a healthy democratic discussion: “Habermas worries that a public sphere shackled by excessive regard for the norms of deliberation and rational debate loses its essential function. And that function is to bring to light questions, issues, concerns and needs that are currently invisible to political leaders and the larger public.”

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A stack of three Local Culture journals and the book 'Localism in the Mass Age'
Jeffrey Bilbro

Jeffrey Bilbro

Jeffrey Bilbro is a Professor of English at Grove City College. He grew up in the mountainous state of Washington and earned his B.A. in Writing and Literature from George Fox University in Oregon and his Ph.D. in English from Baylor University. His books include Words for Conviviality: Media Technologies and Practices of Hope, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News, Loving God’s Wildness: The Christian Roots of Ecological Ethics in American Literature, Wendell Berry and Higher Education: Cultivating Virtues of Place (written with Jack Baker), and Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry’s Sustainable Forms.