The Barbershop
The Family Barber
A person cannot multitask while performing it; instead, all else disappears, and only the person for whom one is caring in this physical way remains the focus for several minutes
More Articles in The Barbershop
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 might yet…
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 live where…
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 is a…
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 their phones…
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 death to…
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 timeless. We…
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 exchanges one…
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 books centered…
The Census Taker in the Pew, Part 3
He does not conflate attendance with salvation or sanctification. But empty pews can neither be saved nor sanctified. They never serve in the nursery or children’s services. They never teach Sunday school…
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,…
How to Buy a Dumb Phone (and How Not to Use It): A Reflection on FPR 2023
I did some research with the help of a “dumb phone finder” which told me the functions, network compatibilities, and reviews of the available flip phones and other simplicity-oriented devices. I identified…
Only Men
The children’s pastor made his point about who was serious or not when it came to serving God. He could have closed the service, and I would have been out of time…
Load More