[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.
[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.
[059] Hangry in Devon: How My Friends Caught Me When I Broke Unity
Last week, I wrote beautifully about unity. About water brothers. About recognizing we’re not separate. Then I spent a week in Devon with friends and spectacularly failed at all of it. The lesson? Unity isn’t sustained by individuals who never fail—it’s sustained by communities who catch each other when they do.
[058] What Mystics Across All Traditions See About Unity (And Why It Matters for Wisdom Keepers)
Across vastly different traditions—Christian contemplatives, Buddhist masters, Hindu sages, Sufi poets, even modern physicists—there emerges an identical vision: we are not separate. Not abstract philosophy—the practical truth that makes wisdom transmission possible.
[057] Who are your water brothers?
When an elder shares the sustaining wisdom of a life lived, they’re not just passing information. They’re saying: “We are water brothers. Your struggles are my struggles. We are one.” The final piece of the True/Good/Beautiful framework—and maybe the most important.
[037] Did I throw the baby Jesus out with the baptism water?
After dismantling my inherited beliefs, I discovered that “nothing” can be the black velvet that lets life’s diamond shine with unexpected brilliance.
[036] When I Lost My Beliefs, I Found My Faith
After decades of defending religious beliefs, a crisis forced me to question everything. What I discovered: faith and belief aren’t the same thing at all.
[035] Standing Outside the Window: When Spiritual Love Turns Hollow
In certain love stories, you lose the person emotionally before the breakup occurs. The same thing happened in my love affair with God—with devastating consequences.
[032] Ascend: Rising Above the Ugliness of Our Cultural Divide
My business partner and I were the dearest of friends—people compared us to Laurel and Hardy. Then we went from bosom buddies to barely speaking, casualties of the cultural divide. I deeply regret that we didn’t push through. Now I’m having weekly calls with another colleague I admire but profoundly disagree with. We’ve agreed to ascend above our ideological differences in honor of our humanity. It isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary. Here’s why our third act demands we rise above the ugliness—and how to begin.