The Beehive Plan
A folklife is made up of the food and craft, the local stories, songs, remedies and rumors—relationships that define a place as much as the geology and ecology do.
“Blackest Land, Whitest People”
From here in my long-time Midwestern location, these lots are unshakeable reminders of a place in Texas where a shameful darkness once surrounded a part of my childhood.
Mud: Our Alma-Pater
If the institutions that oversee our slow twelve-to-eighteen-year process of education are called our alma-mater (nourishing mother), why can’t the dirt-filled, dung-laden places that convey agrarian lessons taught over 20 years be our nourishing father (alma-pater)?
The Price of Place: Oeconomia over Chrematistike
The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.--Edmund Burke, Reflections...
Rethinking the Good City: Vallejo’s Bold Vision
What Americans Want in Cities
What makes a good city? I’ve been thinking a lot about this. What makes for a city people are happy...
Robo-umps and Us
As is so often the case when new technology promises to correct the errors of human fallibility, robo-umps could be bad for everyone involved.
Bringing Wendell Berry (and Business) to Sterling
A week ago I was able to organize a small group of friends to attend a fine, relatively intimate event at Sterling College, a...
Solar’s Dirty Secret
In 2017 I moved back home to Livingston County after serving seven years in the United States Marine Corps. A father, a veteran, and...
Toward a Somewhere Suburb
In his 2017 book The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics, British commentator David Goodhart seeks to understand the recent...
The Power of Place
Review of “The Power of Place: KU Alumni Artists” at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, KS. The exhibit runs through June 30,...