Can Gratitude Save Us?
Appreciation warms us. It is a gentle form of enthusiasm, which in the original Greek meant to be inspired by—even possessed by—a god. To have the divine inside you, glowing through the folds of viscera.
Dispatches
Cartoonist Roz Chast Finds Herself in the Midwest
Chast was sweet and grateful but prone to trying something else. She insisted we go on, she would be fine in the chilly dark outside the massive locked building, which we ignored, no doubt to her discomfort.
The Exuberant Joy of British Kids Eating U.S. Thanksgiving Food
The joy of this video is it makes our Thanksgiving food new again, even to Americans who know it year after year, every late November. If we cannot be grateful for something made new, how could we possibly be worthy of our own holiday?
A Screenwriter Cuts through the Bullshit
Paul Guyot decided he would write his own damned book. But first he would have to read all those books he thought absurd.
A Scarf Can Hold the Universe Together
Nette wrapped each scarf in tissue, tied it with a bow, and added a note with washing instructions. I doled out these packages with diffidence; they offered nothing cool, trendy, or stylish.
Jerry Seinfeld Hates Everything, but He Is Good at It
Seinfeld said when his sitcom “bombed” originally, appearing in a bad slot midweek after Unsolved Mysteries, St. Louis was the one market that kept it alive long enough to become a huge success.
Time Shard Passages: Christopher Stark and 48 St. Stephen Premiere New Duet
Not only did 48 St. Stephen pull it off, but they paid Stark the consummate respect of performing their premiere immediately after such a powerful piece of music with so much historical weight. They also were maybe dropping a breadcrumb to mark a path.
Streaming Killed More Than Just Music
To find what you sought was an object earned. There was no “file” piped through the internet.
Time as the Spooky Thing
Even without tricks, time is spooky. Things move in its medium, are changed, disappear as if never formed. We acknowledge this uncanniness with a holiday at the end of the growing season devoted to ancient fears of death and magic.
Take a Hike
Hiking feels as sacred as church, carrying me into a pristine wilderness. But it also requires me to do what I am terrible at: pay attention to the physical, sensory, concrete world around me.