I went spelunking with my Boy Scouts this weekend. We explored a small cave in central Texas, spending ninety minutes or so underground with a guide, squeezing ourselves into spaces mostly too small to stand up, crawling on hands and knees and occasionally bellies to explore the muddy, fascinating structures formed by the drip of […]
We seek comfort in almost everything we do. In many ways, that’s a good thing. After all, the easier it is for us to do what we need to do–whether it’s sitting at a desk all day, digging trenches for power lines, or catching a football–the more likely we are to do it. A level […]
Every argument starts with an assumption. Usually more than one. If I assume the Bible is the literal Word of God and you assume it’s a dangerous collection of fairy tales, we’re going to have a hard time agreeing on anything that touches my religion–which is pretty much everything. If I assume Ted Cruz is […]
On the morning of April 19, 1775, a company of Massachusetts militia formed ranks on Lexington Common. They had received word in the night that regulars would be coming through that morning on their way to confiscate weapons in the town of Concord, a few miles away. As the redcoats appeared at the edge of […]
A few days ago, I sat in a church in Boston and experienced a service unlike any I had ever seen before. It was raucous, exuberant, a celebration of love. The whole church was decked in colorful banners and flags, and glittering tinsel swallowed the dark paneling of the high pulpit. Cardboard figures of Madonna […]
I can’t remember an election cycle like this. For the first time in my memory, it seems our country is going to select a president based on which candidate the majority dislikes less. This doesn’t seem like a recipe for success. And as long as we spend our energy focusing on which presidential candidate we […]
I heard a story once about a TV preacher (I can’t remember which one) who would not allow himself to be alone in a room with a woman who was not related to him. The teller gave me the story to make fun of the preacher, and by extension all TV preachers: what kind of […]
My son asked me a question yesterday about Iraq. He’s heard about my one experience under fire, when the convoy I was riding in was ambushed at night by attackers firing AK47s, a heavy machine gun, and RPGs. It was over quickly: we returned fire and rolled through with no casualties. I don’t know whether […]
Second place is the first loser. That’s what so many of us tell ourselves. We mean it as a kind of constructive self-shaming, if such a thing can be real, a way to prod ourselves to give everything we have when we compete with others. It’s not enough to finish second–we should only be satisfied […]
We can spend our time arguing about where the world came from. We can argue the difference between the Big Bang and Let there be light, each of us ridiculing the other’s position and logic. We can let the debate descend into name-calling, abandon all respect for each other. We can entrench in our positions, […]