The Barbershop 250
The Census Taker In a Church Pew, Part 5
Her heart is for those little ones, that they might come to know The One who became a child for our salvation and for the glory of God.
A Son’s Journey to His Father
Men often reflect on their relationship with their fathers during these coincidences of milestones; a similar thing often happens when a son reaches the age his father was when the…
My Failed Wild Garden and Inner Utopian
Rational ideas create hell on earth. Just ask a kulak. Or just ask the lettuce plants in my garden.
Hand-Cranked Ice Cream Against Despair
Whether the experience goes beautifully or our best-laid plans go awry, hand cranking ice cream with a few dozen kids is a whole lot more powerful than dithering in paralyzing…
The Hidden Sorrow of Mother’s Day
Our mothers and our children will always be part of our lives, in life and death. Surprisingly, grief does not dominate our existence, it informs it.
Limitless Wishing and its Discontents
Perhaps we need nothing more and nothing less than a continual return to the Gospel, via all the means already available to us. We could start with St. Paul’s reminder…
What’s In Your Garage?
No home but the Garden was there originally for man, once upon a very long time ago. No garage either was part of life before expulsion from Eden.
Gadfly Graffiti
In a funk no more, I was prepared to meet the smile of my daughters with a genuine smile of my own as they came out of practice. The graffiti…
Living With Risk: Vipers or Bleach?
I do not know where the future will take us. I’m not going to try and escape the risks in modern society, but I’m also not going to ignore them.…
The Census Taker In a Church Pew, Part 4
Yet our little sister does not play the victim. She presses on, a sufferer who labors as best she can while shadows and thorns press in against her. And she…
On Bars in Church Basements
Might our local faith communities support such cultivation of virtue, while also restoring what might again be a hub of parish social life?
Housekeeping: The Unhinged Edition
I guess it’s time to sweep. Again. And then again. But we can embrace the gentler side of housekeeping. Besides, if you leave be those spiders in the corners, they…
Southern Hospitality in the New Machine Age
It’s not perhaps that the world doesn’t need change, but that as anti-Machine author Paul Kingsnorth put it in these pages, “the first work is changing yourself.” We have to…
Petroleum and Me
I wish environmentalists would better understand that there are no mustache-twirling billionaires drilling and digging and burning oil just for the hell and the money of it. Like money, petroleum…
Small Plastic Gods: On the Tabletop Renaissance
Tabletop games put something in our twitchy, swipe-hungry fingers other than a digital device—a hand of cards, a pair of dice, a plastic Zeus. And since others have put down…
Parenting Will Kill You Too (And That’s Good)
What this means is death. When our kids were little, parenting meant death to my independence: my time, my space, my very body, were no longer my own. Parenting meant…
Wheeler Catlett: Law and Community
Neither Wheeler Catlett nor his real-life inspiration John Marshall Berry practiced in the 21st century, but for those of us in the profession who do, their example remains powerful and…
On Earth as It Is in Heaven: Embracing Limits to Find Identity, Community, and Place
It is encouraging to see how some young people have embraced limits on energy consumption. But the underlying disease of rapacious desire has not been cured. No, this tradeoff only…
Good University Presses Make Good Neighbors
University presses are remarkable allies in the cause of localism. Though they publish all kinds of academic books, you’ll struggle to find a state university press that does not publish…
