[069] The Difference Between Following Rules and Becoming Someone
After a family gathering where a cousin reflected his own wisdom back to him, Max goes looking for a cleaner definition — turning to the Hebrew wisdom texts, the book of James, and the Sermon on the Mount. What he finds is instructive: even the most celebrated wisdom literature in human history prefers to circle, contrast, and illustrate rather than define. Maybe wisdom can’t be downloaded. Maybe it has to be lived into.
[068] Somewhere Around the Michigan Border
After a family gathering where a cousin reflected his own wisdom back to him, Max goes looking for a cleaner definition — turning to the Hebrew wisdom texts, the book of James, and the Sermon on the Mount. What he finds is instructive: even the most celebrated wisdom literature in human history prefers to circle, contrast, and illustrate rather than define. Maybe wisdom can’t be downloaded. Maybe it has to be lived into.
[067] Divinely Inspired — and Deliberately Vague
After a family gathering where a cousin reflected his own wisdom back to him, Max goes looking for a cleaner definition — turning to the Hebrew wisdom texts, the book of James, and the Sermon on the Mount. What he finds is instructive: even the most celebrated wisdom literature in human history prefers to circle, contrast, and illustrate rather than define. Maybe wisdom can’t be downloaded. Maybe it has to be lived into.
[066] Impressions of Wisdom
I’ll be honest with you — this one came from a place I don’t always write from. A place of genuine uncertainty, and something that might be called frayed faith in the world I thought I understood. A long conversation with a trusted friend cracked it open. What emerged surprised me. I hope it lands somewhere useful for you.
[065] What Is Wisdom to You?
I’ll be honest with you — this one came from a place I don’t always write from. A place of genuine uncertainty, and something that might be called frayed faith in the world I thought I understood. A long conversation with a trusted friend cracked it open. What emerged surprised me. I hope it lands somewhere useful for you.
[064] Beyond Optimism: A Third Act Credo
I’ll be honest with you — this one came from a place I don’t always write from. A place of genuine uncertainty, and something that might be called frayed faith in the world I thought I understood. A long conversation with a trusted friend cracked it open. What emerged surprised me. I hope it lands somewhere useful for you.
[063] The Book in You
I watched the musical Pippin this week at Washington’s Signature Theater and found myself unexpectedly ambushed by one of the oldest questions in human experience: what does a life of meaning actually look like — and how do you know when you’ve found it? This issue continues our series on Connection, Meaning, and Legacy through the lens of one young prince’s exhausting, grace-filled, utterly relatable search for his corner of the sky. Proust shows up, as he tends to, with something uncomfortably true to say.
[062] What Pippin figured out that took me decades
I watched the musical Pippin this week at Washington’s Signature Theater and found myself unexpectedly ambushed by one of the oldest questions in human experience: what does a life of meaning actually look like — and how do you know when you’ve found it? This issue continues our series on Connection, Meaning, and Legacy through the lens of one young prince’s exhausting, grace-filled, utterly relatable search for his corner of the sky. Proust shows up, as he tends to, with something uncomfortably true to say.
[061] The elders the culture has been missing
I recently sat in a room with about a hundred men — facilitators, guides, mentors, some of whom have been doing the work of awakening other men for over forty years. As I looked around, something became clear: these are the elders our culture has been quietly starving itself of, without quite knowing what it was losing. This article is about what they carry, why it matters now more than ever, and why the antidote to our divided world may not be better arguments — but the living presence of people who have already found the gold.
[060] When the Writing Discovers Something the Writer Didn’t Know
Writing is discovery. Over the past few weeks, the process itself kept revealing layers about unity, community, and wisdom transmission that I hadn’t seen before. These insights changed something fundamental—and now I’m revisiting the three deepest aspirations of our generation through a completely different lens. Connection, Meaning, Legacy—reconsidered.