General Essays

While waiting forever for my AMC theater movie to start today, I saw a series of movie trailers, things I usually enjoy on some level. But I was annoyed to see that two of the movies had the same sappy tagline — Dream Big. This is a phrase I heard earlier

I’m in a mood these days to make a brief return to Montaigne and to reconsider his thoughts on solitude, both for the ways I agree and disagree with him. Instead of diving into his full, sprawling essay on solitude, I’m going to unpack this paragraph: “Seek no

My favorite works of narrative art always include elements of mystery and doubt. But in the end, the story always has to conclude or run out of pages (or film stock.) They never drift on into eternity, there is always some kind of resolution. My new operating theory is that

At 1 a.m. Chicago time, this blog received a ping from Sao Paolo, Brazil from an iPhone that hasn’t yet updated to iOS 26. The ping was 0 seconds, so it was not someone interested in reading, just signaling. Or perhaps accidentally visiting, who knows? The ping was

This year, I have tried as best possible to uphold a strict no violence diet of the things I consume. It mostly applies to the things I watch and read — I have steered clear of books, movies and TV shows that feature acts of violence — but it also literally applies

I have been thinking a lot lately about the division and violence in this country and how much it relates to mental health. And then I remembered this quote from Montaigne’s essay “On Virtue:” Except for order, moderation, and constancy, I believe that all things are possible for a