Sign in Subscribe

Topic

Existence Strikes Back Part IV

Getting the Tao Back into Our Lives. This part could also be called, “How to flourish in modernity despite modernity.” It features a lot of advice for re-asserting one’s right hemisphere (our modem for the Tao and, therefore, “ground zero” for our fight against modernity).

The Way of the Cobblestone

Smooth makes things rough. Ease makes life more difficult. Soft makes us brittle. We lost something when asphalt replaced cobblestone. Every step on those old, gnarled stones forced a man’s body to shift, recalibrate, and work. The more cobblestonish the surface, the more micro-exertions. The more asphaltish the surface,

The Third Way Fever

This modern world’s got a fever, and it ain’t for more cowbell. It’s for third alternatives. Everybody’s itching for that elusive other option, like it’s the last ticket out of a burning city. Ray Oldenburg lit a fuse back in ’89 with The Great Good

Why We Need to Meditate

So, you want to meditate? Here’s the raw deal, stripped down to the studs: 1. Plunk yourself in a chair—or on the floor if you’re one of those types—and shut your eyes. 2. Zero in on the air moving through your nose. Feel it, don’t

Maybe We Should Thank the Buddhists for Mindfulness Meditation

Catholics keep flogging their tired old nag of a gripe about mindfulness meditation, even though heavyweights like Peter Kreeft and Kevin Majeres have given it their thumbs-up. Their big beef? “The Buddhists kicked it off!” Cue the pearl-clutching and incense-waving, as if that’s a knockout punch. It’s the

Gen-Z Needs Community Gardens

It’s dang near Chinese coolie labor time again, that grand American spectacle where hordes of lunatics, armed with shovels, hoes, and a rabid gleam in their eyes, descend upon their garden patches like it’s a sacred calling. Think of it as the nation’s biggest hobby—a manic,

How to Use the Cold Weather

I woke up yesterday morning to the gales of November, the same that brought down the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, according to meteorologists who said the atmospheric mix that dumped a few inches on my town is the same that brought down the mighty freighter. I could hear a collective

Satire Can Save Us

This was previously published as an "Outside the Modern Limits" newsletter. I normally don't send them again as a Substack newsletter, but I did this time because I edited almost every sentence and added a bunch of footnotes. It's the same product, but entirely

Counter-Conduct and Flourishing are the Same Things Except They're Not

Modernity is left-hemispheric. It has led to a culture of left hemisphere presumptions, conditions, and conclusions. As a result, it has led to a population of people with atrophied right hemispheres. Each of us has an obligation to reinvigorate our right hemispheres. We owe it to ourselves; we owe it

Pinball is of the Body: Why Modern Tech Can't Recreate the World Under Glass

Rae Hodge at Slate

Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase, by Arthur Quinn