Society
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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.
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In the Absence of Certainty
Photo by Roméo A. on Unsplash It always begins with something that seems simple. A book, or a story. A puzzle you think you can solve. I read Vellum the… Read more.
