Neighborhood dogs
The city of Frederick has a population of 85,000 people and almost as many dogs. I wish we had fewer people, but as long as they’re here I’m glad they brought their dogs. Here’s what a few of the dogs in our neighborhood are like. Izzy, who lives across the street, is a tiny, desperately […]
Chimney rock, mango gelati, grass, anxiety
Four stream-of-consciousness things from the last few months: Planning to jump the gap at Chimney Rock So I’ve always been scared around ledges. There’s a little rock formation called Chimney Rock up in Catoctin Mountain Park where my family has hiked a million times. To get to the top of the formation with the best […]
Technoreligion V: Deconversion and Death
So now, so what? Over the previous four essays, I’ve argued that technology is the main religion of modern life because it asks to be the center of it, the mediator of everything. I’ve claimed that technology isn’t neutral, that it’s oriented toward power and convenience, and that as we serve it, our movement toward […]
Technoreligion IV: Money and Rulers
I play basketball at the YMCA down the street at nine o’clock most Wednesday mornings, our ragtag group of guys self-selected based on who can make the workday time work. We get mainly retired grey-beards in their 50s or 60s who are finally free from office shifts, plus a few venerated elders who are still […]
Mike Tomlin
I’ve been a sports fan since I could walk, and probably for longer than that. The month before I was born, the Pittsburgh Pirates lost the National League Championship Series to the Atlanta Braves in seven games, and I’m pretty sure my dad’s angst was dire enough that I felt it in the womb. A […]
The Other World
In all the best stories, there is an Other World behind the curtain of the ordinary world. Behind boring old England, there’s the whole world of witches and wizards and Hogwarts. There’s Narnia in Narnia, obviously, and Aslan’s country, too. There’s the Matrix in The Matrix – or the real world, depending on your starting […]
Technoreligion III: Convenience and Power
The other evening, following a long and wide-ranging discussion that at times bordered dangerously on argument, Alli and I came to the unified decision that we would, after all, watch Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. (We’re both good negotiators, but she’s better.) The agreement was hard-earned, but the next step seemed easy […]
Technoreligion II: The Myth of Neutrality
We had a camper when I was a kid, a pebbly-white, pop-up trailer that my grandparents gave us when we lived in Colorado. It was small but mighty, equipped with every necessity: two pull-out beds, a few cabinets, a sink that never worked, and a clever piece of furniture that, depending on its position and […]
Unkillable
We can’t – whatever we try –Stamp it out. It is still flickeringAbove the low ceilings, heavyWith flat fluorescent lights, and buzzingBelow the broken asphalt spewed intoWhole Foods parking lots, and peekingBetween the graffitied metro stops and just-washedSelf-driving, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and shimmeringBefore tonight’s delivery-drone package and rightAfter this next commercial break and somehow even flutteringIn […]
Technoreligion
There’s a large Amish population in Pennsylvania. I used to see them occasionally when I went to school near Pittsburgh; they’d left the world but they were still out and about. I remember one time in particular, toward the end of a spring semester, driving out with some friends to some isolated spot at the […]