modern-day eugenics enrolls each of us in its blood-soaked imagination—asking us to shoulder social problems, inviting us to purchase an illusion of safety, making any demand for robust public investment in the goods, services, and infrastructure required for everyone to live well appear unimaginable.

Like any obstinate, stiff-necked husband, I was slow to listen and resistant to her arguments. For some reason, it wasn’t until I read the same arguments from authors like Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan and especially Wendell Berry that I understood her point. (This frustrating dynamic will no doubt sound familiar to other spouses.) While th

Literature and old-style contemplative reading seem enfeebled—almost as if they need to be argued for, helped along by the elbow.

consider the relationship between restiveness and repose, and how the ease of a small stratum of the global population is predicated on extracting wealth, health, and rest from the masses. It holds a mirror up to the overstimulated, sleep-deprived societies of our present day.