Hospitality at a Fractured Table
“It sure is hard to have people over to dinner these days,” the food writer lamented, at a talk I attended the other week....
Homes, New and Old
CLAREMONT, CA. We have become homeowners.
This week, my husband and I are moving boxes from our latest rental into a house that we may...
انه الاقتصاد، غبي
Here are two scenarios: one leads through democratic enlightenment to peace and prosperity, and the other through intractable economic problems to war and disintegration.
Everything I Ever Learned About Civility I Learned in a Small...
For instruction in civilization, nothing beats a small town.
Tocqueville on the Shores of Titicaca
Amid Alexis de Tocqueville’s writings on revolution in France, there is a passage that rings true for those of us who have spent time...
St. Dennis of the Bleachers
It’s been almost six years now and I suspect he’s still talking St. Peter’s ear off.
An Elegy for South Bend
Devon, PA. Some years ago, early in my graduate student days in South Bend, I was invited to begin an opinion column in the...
The Eckhart Tolle of Space
“Many propositions involving temporal concepts which seem obviously and necessarily true are just as necessarily but not obviously true when formulated in terms of...
On Feeling “Forgotten”: Agrarian Aspirations in the Andes
“The more things change, the more they remain the same.” The villagers of Pomatambo, Ayacucho, Peru, did not coin the phrase, though it has...
“I Wouldn’t Take Nothing for It”: An Appreciation of Love for...
“Heeding lessons from farmers who persist in place, we can embrace these virtues. Rather than give up or get out, we can dig in. Rather than go big, we can go home."