Society
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Something Other than Grief
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash There is an argument in The Kite Runner that has stayed with me longer than most of the plot. Baba tells Amir that there… Read more.
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The Thread
Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash I have known many smokers who were constantly under financial stress. I have rarely seen one of them without a cigarette. And, for… Read more.
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Only Ink
Photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash Consider a drawer of maps, all of them describing the same county. The first shows roads: highways in red, gravel in… Read more.
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After the Introduction
Photo by EJ Yao on Unsplash Husband. Son. Veteran. Southerner. Stoic, at least in influence. Taoist, though not in any way that fits neatly on a form. A technologist, self-taught,… Read more.
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The Word We Use for People Who Will Not Move
Photo by Stefano Pollio on Unsplash Someone, somewhere, is being called a monster right now. Though not in a courtroom, or a history book. Right now, the label is applied… Read more.
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Solvent
Photo by Efe Kekikciler on Unsplash Sometimes it begins the way it’s supposed to. A career built carefully, a wife, a house, children. The slow expansion of a life that… Read more.
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The Obligation You Can No Longer Meet
Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash There is a setting on my laptop that used to be something you actually configured. I remember configuring it, years ago, with a drop-down… Read more.
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The Piton in the Wall
Photo by boris misevic on Unsplash Most systems of exploration are built on things you rarely notice. A ledge that appears exactly where it’s needed. A handhold that feels almost… Read more.
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The Hand Remains
Photo by Melchior Damu on Unsplash He was never the loudest of them. In a hall where thunder had a name and trickery wore a smile, Tyr did not compete… Read more.
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This Far. And No Further.
Photo by Stéphane Juban on Unsplash There are a lot of famous shields in the old stories. That should have been a warning. When a culture turns an object into… Read more.
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Clean Cuts: The Dark Mechanics of Integrity
Photo by Balázs Gábor on Unsplash To understand Niccolò Machiavelli, you have to begin with what he lost. Not his reputation; that came later, and louder. But his position inside… Read more.
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First, and Not at All
Photo by Aconitum on Unsplash The hall seemed like a room designed to convince you that the world had always been safe. It wasn’t safe like a fortress, in the… Read more.
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Of Blaviken, Butchery, and Blindness
The village was offensive in its normalcy. That was the first thing Geralt noticed. Smoke rose in lazy, silver ribbons against a slate sky. A dog napped in the damp… Read more.
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Choices Below the Waterline
Photo by Francis Odeyemi on Unsplash I hear the neighbors screaming over the sound of the rain on asphalt shingles above me, not quite enough to drown out the volume… Read more.
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Clair Obscur: On Choice and Creation
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash I stand where the light is strongest because this is where I was taught to stand. Someone placed it here long before I arrived,… Read more.
