Twenty Something

Business was good. So good, in fact, that the family company had become one of the largest breweries in New England, producing 300,000 barrels a year and supporting two generations of Geisels in Springfield, Massachusetts.

There is an art and a science to slow living. This summer I’m trying to learn both.

We live in an unfortunate era for online criticism. Critics fling insults they would never dare utter face to face. Defendants — typically privileged public figures — bristle with self-righteousness, dubbing their critics “haters,” earning praise for “clapping back” in their own defense.

"...there is another definition for Christians: the good news."

When Pope Francis talks about evangelization, his poster child may well be an immigrant in North Dakota.

When David Brooks travels the country, he seeks out the good news. The bad news is all too easy to find.

All afternoon I had been hunkered over my MacBook, perched above a frozen lake and watching the sun cast pink into the clouds. I was thinking about what lie dormant and all the possibility below, waiting to thaw.

I’ve always appreciated the notion of self-care in an Oprah Winfrey, hot-baths-and-expensive-chocolates kind of way. We work so hard, the thinking goes, that we deserve a break here and there. So splurge on that full-price gift-to-yourself. Book the massage. Binge on the new season.