For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World

Something fundamental in our culture has ended. What exactly, I can’t quite put my finger on. As many things in the liminal, it’s hard to grasp. But if we want to birth something new out of it, we have to come to terms with endings. We have to come to terms with the ultimate ending, the very thing Covid-19 forces us to look at: our inevitable death... See more

Nothing, not one thing, hurts us more — or causes us to hurt others more — than our certainties. The stories we tell ourselves about the world and the foregone conclusions with which we cork the fount of possibility are the supreme downfall of our consciousness. They are also the inevitable cost of survival, of navigating a vast and complex reality... See more

That is all we have, this moment with the world. It will not last, because nothing lasts. Entropy, mortality, extinction: the entire plan of the universe consists of losing, and no matter how much we find along the way, life amounts to a reverse savings account in which we are eventually robbed of everything. Our dreams and plans and jobs and knees... See more

Some moments are simply too vast to be reduced to a single explanation—whether scientific, philosophical, or spiritual. And the meaning of things is often beyond words. It’s enough to sit with the awe, wonder, and mystery of the moment without trying to understand what has transpired. We can embrace the magic that surrounds us every day, appreciate... See more