Maria Popova’s “Brain Pickings” is a free weekly digest — emailed on Sunday — in which she reviews books, both new and classic. She has the sensibility of a poet, and her reviews are a pure joy to read. Here’s an excerpt from today’s edition: Wintering: Resilience, the Wisdom of Sadness, and How the…
Jennifer Wollock, Texas A&M University Valentine’s Day annoys many people. For many in a relationship, the pressure to impress a partner can weigh heavily, and expensive gifts serve as a reminder of the relentless commercialization of the holiday. Meanwhile those still looking for love approach the day with trepidation – another reminder of their…
Editor’s Note: I first ran across this essay, a commencement address given by Paul Hawken to the lucky University of Portland graduating class of 2009, in a beautiful book of inspirational essays called Hope Beneath our Feet. When I wrote to Hawken to get permission to reprint it, his reply included this postscript: “I went to Nevada Union High…
By Don Pelton For some reason this article (mentioned on Facebook by our daughter) reminds me that my mom, when she died at age ninety, left us a whole chest-of-drawers full of unsewn fabric (future projects, I suppose). Not as old as 3,000 years, but many decades’ worth. In the days before she died, when…
How the Raid on Malheur Screened a Future Raid on Real Estate By William deBuys Reprinted with permission from Tomdispatch.com It goes without saying that in a democracy everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions. The trouble starts when people think they are also entitled to their own facts. Away out West, on…