Borders

It doesn’t matter how you treat a dead body. The dead wasp I vacuumed off my floor yesterday is just as dead as my great-grandfather– as far as science can tell us, anyway. Death means a lack of mattering. I appreciate how Buddhists try to get us comfortable with that, impossible as it may be. […]

Mummified

For all we know, the soul of Perneb is wandering around, flustered, like a smoker without a Quik Trip at 3 am. Perneb believed, or at least some of his friends and family believed, that he needed a tomb with a false door to keep his soul nourished. Unfortunately, Mr. Edward S. Harkness gave Perneb’s […]

Simple Minded

I swear, the lassi was a touch sour. Although I was the saddest, loneliest person eating Indian food, I also believe the food was mediocre. They brought me free tomato soup, and I was still like, whatever. That morning at church, I had listened to the story of Nahum. Nahum is trying to get healed, […]

The Look

Jacob Riis is famous for having photographed the tenements in New York City. Real estate rules about rooms having windows, and indoor plumbing, and fire escapes, did not descend upon us from angels. The relative liveability of modern cities was won by Mr. Riis and other activists. Today is his feast day in the Anglican calendar. […]