The Barbershop

Haunted by Grace, a little East of Eden: A Literary Apologetic

Like the Macleans, we are listening for those inaudible, but not imperceptible, words underneath the rocks in the river that runs through our own lives.

A Bigger Pond

We need to reject the myth of Progress that discourages us from ever being settled and content.

Invitations to Dwell

We soaked in the morning and our coffee, aware that we were technically trespassing. But, at the moment, we felt the weight of heritage, a complicated term that outmatched the real-estate deeds housed in Pulaski county courthouse.

The Pandemic and the Primacy of the Household

We have been thrown back into our own small worlds, but these are worlds we are free to shape. Within the household we have considerable power over how our lives our lived, what we make, and how we consume.

A Tale of Three “Porchers”

We live in fractured days, lacking in harmony, civility, and comity. “Comity,” an old word for courtesy and kindness, is related etymologically to the Sanskrit word for “smile.” As it often does, etymology here beautifully illuminates a reality, in this case about both kindness and smiling: they unceasingly bring warmth, joy, and a smile to both giver and receiver.

The Economic Value of Streetcars

Although you would hardly know it today, Baltimore was once a city of streetcars. Crackling densely across the city’s center like fissures in old...

The Power of Place: Northern Exposure and South Side

Places shape us and provide the contours of our communities. And despite the grittier dramas, the grip that a place has on us is not always all about past crimes and complicated emotions. Sometimes even a place we can’t seem to “escape” can be a source of pleasure or comfort in some ways.

Joining the Dance: Setting Aside Screens to Build the City

The young pagans band around the picnic table and scrawl inky runes into their hands with cheap pens. Around them, the world falls, and wonders if they will...

The Census Taker in a Church Pew

It is a trouble that visits us all: our fate is to die and be forgotten. Tying ourselves to one another and to life can diminish that trouble’s force, but kingdoms and cultures and homes rise and fall. Being willingly bound in devotion to the Creator redeems that trouble forever.

Home, Revisited

The pandemic has provided an opportunity to recenter our lives around home and family