“A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo’s heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit In the opening chapter of his 1986 book Beyond Identity—one of those titles I consider a “must read”...
Continue Reading
Americans have a reading problem. For starters, fewer of us can be found with our noses in a book these days. According to a recent Gallup poll, book readership is on the decline, with just 6% of U.S. adults naming reading as their favorite way to spend an evening. That’s down from 12% in 2016....
Continue Reading
“Windows to transcendence” is the metaphor the brilliant sociologist Peter Berger offered, describing the way we see and don’t see the reality of the world around us. He argued that the Enlightenment vision of the modern world has closed those windows, believing that human beings do quite well, “enlightened” that we are as material accidents...
Continue Reading
For a few years I lived my life in light of the mountain men, imagining my very ordinary days enlarged by the companionship of Kit Carson, William Sublette, Jim Beckwourth, Jedidiah Smith and Jim Bridger. Their adventures became my adventures. Long a lover of stories, and these tales told of brave men, unusual men, visionary...
Continue Reading
