Barrington Jedidiah Walker has been eyeing a climb up a very tall mountain for a very long time. Dream as he might about someday grinning down from its peak and beholding the rewards of his ascent, he remains stuck at his low-elevation base camp, where swirling clouds and the clamor of civilization and its entanglements below freeze him in place, unable to carry on. He explains his lack of progress to himself as just a long spell of not-quite-right timing. Surely, he tells his closest, life-long confidant who has been a regular, supportive visitor with Barrington as they gaze at…
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“Since the beginning of the conflict, Russian forces have indiscriminately and disproportionately bombed and shelled civilian objects, causing heavy civilian casualties. The Russian forces have ignored their Geneva convention obligations to focus their attacks on combatants, and appear to take few safeguards to protect civilians: It is this carpet-bombing campaign which has been responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths in the conflict.” The quote above is from a news release detailing the testimony of an official from the Human Rights Watch organization before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Anyone keeping up with the news since…
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It was as if I had just been rudely awakened from a dream, except there was no “if” about it—because that is exactly what had happened. Out there in the fast lane just outside Lansing, Illinois, on the way to meet up with friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and from there to explore Ontario and Québec on a long road trip. Ten days out from home, some eighteen still to go, on the road all morning, the eyelids having wanted to droop several times in the hour just past, discussion having commenced about pulling over soon for rest and refuel.…
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Is there anything more forlorn than a long unused passport, still brimming with hope of adventure for its bearer, though its pages remain unstamped, the whole of it the very epitome of unrealized potential and unfulfilled dreams? So it was for my passport, it having sat idly in a dark closet throughout the nearly seven years since I last renewed it. Mocking, no, make that pleading with me regarding its mint condition, it was languishing in danger of expiration without ever having come under the squinty gaze and worn thumb of an inquiring border agent asking about my intentions in…
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We were visiting friends at a lakeside cabin in Michigan, four of us seated around a table near the water on hard steel chairs. Mary had two cushions under her tush and I had none. I asked her whether she could share one of her cushions, and she readily consented. As she sat back down, she exclaimed, “Wow, it’s amazing how much difference one cushion makes!” I replied, “Yes it is!” *** Look, I come here not to wag my finger at the basics of capitalism. I’m all in on the profit motive, the spirit of competition, and the value…