The Stump
An Agrarian Prayer
If you have ever prayed the Lord’s prayer, then you have prayed for the soil and its earthworms—even if you didn’t intend to.
More Articles in The Stump
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 living in, and want to stay in?…
Moon Missions and the Southern Tradition
"…this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was…
The Right Stuff
Precisely because it is limitless, space is the best place to test the limits of our courage and abilities.
Blessed Are the Working Poor
I am in love with my neighborhood because I am in love with the people, how resilient and complicated they are, and how they teach me how wrong I have been about…
A Politics of Presence
When we stop trying to be everywhere at once, we have enough time for the meaningful things.
The Wonderfully (if Perhaps Insufficiently) Radical Bill McKibben
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] I've been a fan of Bill McKibben's writings for close to 30 years. That doesn't mean I've agreed with, or even enjoyed, everything this endlessly prolific journalist-environmentalist-activist-pundit-essayist…
The Case for Confucianism in America: How an Ancient Chinese Philosophical Tradition Could Save Our Fraying Democracy
In such times, a centripetal lurch is what we desperately need.
Regional Universities Educate for Merit—It’s too Bad Our Elites Just Want Prestige
The Varsity Blues parents didn’t really care if their children learned anything; they were concerned that they got their ticket to success stamped by the right institution.
Bringing Wendell Berry (and Business) to Sterling
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A week ago I was able to organize a small group of friends to attend a fine, relatively intimate event at Sterling College, a small Christian liberal…
A Case for Shame
In Canto XXX of the Inferno, Dante becomes fascinated with an argument between Sinon the Greek and Master Adamo, both of them condemned for sowing discord. Virgil, his guide through hell, becomes…
Taxes from the Porch
Local communities, not the federal government, should hold the true authority over one’s life, especially in matters of taxation.
The Leased of These
Earlier this year, headlines indicated that an unprecedented number of Americans are more than 90 days behind on their car loan payments. Nearly all economists agree that 7 million Americans defaulting on car…
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