This piece by Cort Gatliff was originally published in January of 2016. For more from Gatliff (and others) on all things Hamilton, check out the Mockingbird Hamilton guide! My life can be divided into two distinct eras: Before Hamilton and After Hamilton. On October 1, 2015, after months of following the online hysteria and critical […]
Tell Me Exactly What To Do (And I Will Do the Opposite): A Brief History of Advice
“How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice, when they will not so much as take warning?” – Jonathan Swift I’ll always remember our wedding caterer telling me and my wife that, if we wanted to make sure our reception ran smoothly, we would assign a master of ceremonies. “People like to […]
Optimizing Life, Profaning the Sabbath
Delighted to have this post from Derrick Bledsoe: There are few things more stressful to me than the sudden realization that I have forgotten something meaningful. If a special meeting, a sensitive phone call, or a research paper submission were an iceberg, then I am absolutely not going to make a tasteless Titanic joke (but […]
Sticking Our Necks Out: Judgement in the Age of COVID Phases
Life is judged with all the blindness of life itself. – Santayana My friend recently admitted that he and his wife had invited people over for dinner. Plenty of qualifiers were set in place—not only did everyone eat outside on their porch, but their guests were mindful enough to bring their own food, their own […]
If Our Sins Were Embroidered on Our Hats
Recently, a friend texted me and another friend saying that she saw a couple at Trader Joe’s wearing hats embroidered with a provocative statement with which she disagreed. She politely walked up to them and engaged them in conversation (this friend is much braver than me), but they were unfortunately not receptive or interested in […]
The Triumph of Lo-Fi Aesthetics
This one comes to us from Peter Severson: We have learned quickly that a lot of our contemporary industries weren’t built to be pandemic-proof, but the sudden shutdown of live-action television and movie production might be the biggest cultural shock of them all. The industry has recently experienced a compelling devolution in style, one that […]
Bo Burnham and a Cameo of Happiness
Kanye Rants, Anxiety, and the Insatiable Search for Meaning and Happiness
Lean On Me
It was 1971 on a 7:38am Niagara Frontier Transit bus going north from downtown Buffalo. The destination was the suburbs 45 minutes away, my private day school. I could have taken the private bus company’s ride that the school offered, but it was a 7am pickup. Buffalo offered free bus passes to all students, so […]
Doing, Being, Asking
This one was written by Kurt Armstrong: Six years ago a friend of mine hired me to replace the front steps of his house, and two days into the job, when I got out of bed in the morning my left knee was so stiff I could hardly bend it. I hadn’t crashed or fallen […]
At Sea
If my Bark sink ‘Tis to another Sea — Mortality’s Ground Floor Is Immortality — Dickinson, F1250A We are at sea. So far out that there is no shore to sight. There may be a captain, but it does not matter. The sea is calling the shots. The captain can steer the boat, but the […]
“But If Not”: God is With Us in the Furnace
This one comes to us from Kristi Crum. In this time of social distancing, it has been interesting to witness how different people respond to the coronavirus and the fears it has wrought. This week, I realized my own response finds its root in my ultimate fear, “Am I doing or being enough?” Recently, as […]
This Abundant Life
“Today I know that it is a good idea to stop having experiences, whatever the genre, and to limit oneself to living: to allow life to express itself as it is, and not to fill it with the artifice of our travels or readings, relationships or passions, spectacles, entertainments, searches…. All of our experiences tend […]
