Category: Life & Human Nature
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Roundabouts and the Death of the Traffic Circle — A Lesson in Civility, Engineering, and Common Sense
There is a special kind of driver who believes they are the master of the road, confident in their knowledge, certain of their skill, and unshakable in their belief that all circular intersections are the same. These are the people who still call a modern roundabout a “traffic circle.” Bless their hearts. They are the…
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Chris Stapleton vs. Bob Seger: Or, How to Start a Bar Fight Without Throwing a Punch
Ah, the age-old debate: Is Chris Stapleton better than Bob Seger? Or, as I like to call it, How to Get Uninvited from Thanksgiving Dinner in One Easy Conversation. Let’s settle this once and for all—or at least give you enough ammunition to annoy your uncle at the next family gathering. Round 1: The Voices…
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If I were speaking to those who could act—but don’t—this is what I’d tell them.
What could you try for the first time? There comes a point when the question, “What could I try for the first time?” stops being about opportunity and starts being about courage. Many people already have the tools: the money, the access, the experience, the connections. They’re not waiting for permission—they’re waiting for the fear…
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The Heirs of Reputation — Why Legacy Rarely Breeds Integrity
There’s a curious phenomenon among the powerful — a generational dilution of virtue. The founders, the builders, the titans who clawed their way to prominence, often possessed a blend of vision, ruthlessness, and charisma that made their success at least somewhat comprehensible. You could respect them, even if you didn’t like them. But then come…
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When Geopolitics Go to Hell, Maybe Nihilism Isn’t Such a Bad Idea
There’s a moment—somewhere between the latest invasion, the newest sanctions, and the twelfth emergency summit in a single month—when you realize that geopolitics has become less “game of chess” and more “children fighting over a crayon box during nap time.” The stakes are high, the rhetoric is grand, and yet the whole performance feels weirdly…
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Rich People Behaving Badly: A Tale as Old as Time
Oh, wealthy folks. Some of them are lovely, humble humans who quietly donate to charity and live in understated mansions. And then there are the others—the ones who treat money like a personality trait and their bank accounts like a moral get-out-of-jail-free card. Let’s talk about those rich people. The Flaunters vs. The Sane You…
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The Luck of Being Liked: On the Quiet Privilege of Social Favor
Some people are lucky. Not lottery-winning, plane-crash-surviving lucky. Just slightly lucky—lucky in the one area that matters most in a society built on human relationships: other people. For them, the world seems to lean ever so gently in their favor. Strangers smile a little longer, bosses assume competence before proof, and police encounters end with…
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The Tragedy of the Out-of-Touch Ruler
Somewhere between the marble halls of power and the glowing screens of the modern world, a disconnection has taken root. The world’s most powerful leaders are speaking to ghosts — fighting wars that ended, solving problems that evolved, and governing people who no longer exist in the forms they remember. It is a quiet tragedy,…
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The Temperament of Disease: A Pondering, Not a Prescription
I wonder if our bodies have personalities—if introverts and extroverts carry different biological rhythms, not just in mind but in immunity. It’s a tempting thought. The quiet, measured life of the introvert might seem to shape a cautious, inward immune system. The outgoing life of the extrovert, with its constant contact, might build a kind…
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the rails I try to stay between
What principles define how you live? I live by a few simple principles that have been sharpened over time — through work, through mistakes, and through watching the world repeat itself in new disguises. First, self-reliance. I believe the instinct to immediately call someone else to fix a problem is the surest way to stay…
