An Atheist and an Agnostic Walk Into a Bar….
If I am searching for meaning, I am less likely to tumble into hedonism or overvalue stuff and money or use people for my own ends.
Dispatches
Holy Daze
I make my festive announcement. And then I hear myself. Holy days. What they were supposed to be in the first place. And with that, everything clicks into place.
Why We Hate the Poor
Those who do not have the most basic shelter and sustenance remind us how easily we could lose our own comfort. They remind us that mental illness and addiction can scramble the brains we rely on to succeed. They remind us that existence is precarious at its core.
Driving Is Better Than Most Brain Tests
DRIVES is one of the first studies to measure specific driving behavior over time. And what the team has already learned is that well before any cognitive signs of dementia show up, reckless driving—hard stops, sudden acceleration, speeding—indicates its future onset.
The New Bibliophobia
Bibliophobia surfaces when other people read certain books. The fear remains irrational and uncontrollable, leaving patients incapable of conquering it on their own. The affective tone is also unchanged, marked by avoidance of books, dread of their presence, and an associated guilt or shame—although in this iteration, the guilt and shame are projected onto the person who is reading, not the sufferer of the phobia.
Why You Have Never Heard of Mickey Hahn
If you stay in St. Louis, you write your own blues. I live across the river now, a negligible distance compared to my youth’s fleeting dreams of Boston, New York, or what the hell, Bhutan—but I use St. Louis as the excuse for my lack of ambition and adventure.So maybe I should be glad no one has heard of Mickey Hahn, whose life negates my excuse.
Is Your Soul Immortal?
I hate the idea of the soul as remote, separate from the body, sealed up in some holographic tabernacle inside us. But I am afraid to lose the idea of soul altogether.
The Salon is a Marvelous Thing
The salon is a different idea, and I like it. In the old days, a salon was a carefully chosen group, often with different views, who gathered to talk about literature, art, politics, and current events. The space it happened in was more intimate and private than, say, a coffeehouse or pub, perhaps even in a host’s bed chambers.
We Are Officially in Goblin Mode
The word of the year reflects the zeitgeist, and we have been bullied by social media, dictated to by influencers, terrified by physical and political contagion, until the only obvious place to land was in crazed overreaction. Goblin mode.
“It’s Not Safe Out Here”
When Sandbox VR came looking for writers to experience its new VR games—and one of them had a Star Trek theme—I gulped and said yes, then roped in my husband, who knows Star Trek the way other people know scripture.