The Roots and Persistence of the Idea of Decline
Watts’s lucid history of Rome’s “dangerous idea” makes clear that the problem is not so much that we do not remember the past, but that we remember the wrong things.
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Another Bit about Freedom: Lottery Version
Courtesy Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0 ee I was in the library when I heard the young man talking on the phone: “I got our one-billion-dollar lottery ticket, so I feel like we have to be prepared. ‘What would you do?’ my wife asked me, but to…
Halloween, Then and Now
In the Halloweens of my day, in a defunct little coal town in the Midwest, we had a hell of a good time.
The Possibility of Joy
Ross Gay’s point is that “joy and pain are fundamentally tangled up with one another.” What if, he says, joy is what bubbles forth when “we help each other carry our heartbreak?” To know that, though, we have to invite sorrow in. We welcome it with open (not crossed) arms. And once we stop resisting sorrow, guess what? We no longer resist or brush aside joy.
How Bosnians Changed St. Louis
"Bosnian St. Louis" reminds us how beautiful Bosnia and Herzegovina was, and how readily people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds intermarried and socialized. This small country with a mouthful of a name was first part of Yugoslavia—and it was the only Yugoslav republic established purely by geography and history, not ethnicity.
In Berlin, Art Reckons With History
The experiences that are possible in Berlin are powerful and unsettling; they grab hold, forcing you to wrestle with them.
Jeff Bridges, Photographer
Behind the scenes of ‘True Grit’ with the Coens, by Jeff Bridges, courtesy of the artist I have always been a fan of Jeff Bridges’ acting but was surprised to learn this week he is an accomplished art photographer and sculptor whose work has appeared in Premiere and Aperture…
Diane von Furstenberg’s Little Wrap Dress
Diane von Furstenberg has always known she was meant to be here, meant to design. Back in high school, she was writing papers exploring beauty as a defense against death.
Why Fall Color Will Fade
Researchers are not exactly sure how it will all play out. Some say that warmer temperatures will mean longer growing seasons, so a later start to fall foliage. Others say that if trees start photosynthesizing earlier, they may turn color sooner.
The Shame Game
Maybe the crueler sorts of shame are having a resurgence not just because we have the technology but because we feel out of control. Maybe we are desperately hoping there is still a common moral standard to which others can be held. Or maybe we still believe, deep in our gut, that shame works, no matter how much pain it causes.