The Water Dipper
Thinking, Baseball, and Eggs
“Have Humans Passed Peak Brain Power?” John Burn-Murdoch points to several indicators that humans across the world are simply thinking and understanding less now than happened ten years ago. The lure of…
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Suffering, Happiness, and Baseball
“How Tech Despair Can Set You Free.” In a rich essay on Jacques Ellul, Samuel Matlack faces the dangers of our technological society squarely and considers the possibilities for hope: “‘You cannot…
Soil, Friendship, and Laughter
“Why Putin is no Hitler.” Daniel McCarthy warns against falling into wrongheaded patterns of thinking as war takes place in Europe: “Certain reflexes remain irresistible in Washington, not only among politicians but…
Wendell Berry, Urban Planning, and Gleaning
“Wendell Berry’s Advice for a Cataclysmic Age.” In a surprisingly sympathetic essay—surprising given its appearance in the New Yorker, a publication not known for its sympathy with agrarians from rural Kentucky--Dorothy Wickenden…
Boys, Protests, and the Metaverse
“Big Business Games the Supply Chain” Rose Adams describes how companies like Amazon and Walmart are better positioned to profit from supply chain snarls while small businesses struggle acutely. Yet these small…
Shakespeare, Maus, and Mushrooms
“‘Aw, Partners, It’s Been a Bitch.’ A Letter from Ken Kesey After His Son’s Death.” Ken Kesey’s letter to Wendell Berry and other mutual friends describing the death and burial of his…
Idols, Democracy, and Communion
“The Migration of the Holy.” Paul Kingsnorth weighs England’s purported secular culture and finds it wanting. As he argues, “everything is religious,” and when we turn from a transcendent God, we manufacture…
Social Media, Hyperbole, and Walking
“Can Our Campuses Be Reasonable?” Zena Hitz praises Jonathan Marks’s Let’s Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education, but she calls for a higher ideal than mere reasonableness: “The real engine…
Trees, Old Books, and Local Politics
“The Trees at the Heart of Creation.” Andrew Peterson and Tim Mackie (from the Bible Project) talk about the role of trees in the biblical narrative and the implications we should draw…
Great Books, Pecans, and Local Bars
“My Pandemic Book Club Changed the Way I Think about Literature — and Community.” Christopher Frizzelle writes about the goods that came from a Zoom-based book group he’s been leading. I tend…
Friendship, Hospitality, and the Food System
“I Practise Philosophy as Art.” Gesine Borcherdt talks with philosopher Byung-Chul Han about his recent book: “I think trust is a social practice, and today it is being replaced by transparency and…
Memory, Maintenance, and Catholic Social Teaching
“Fare Forward Interview with Jack Shoemaker.” I somehow missed this fascinating conversation between Fare Forward and Jack Shoemaker that came out this past summer. They discuss correspondence and literary friendships, and Shoemaker…
Humanities, Journalism, and Parishes
Tomorrow marks the beginning of Advent, which is also the start of the Christian year. I’m taking the month off from compiling these Water Dippers as I’ll be spending more time offline…
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