We like birthdays because they behave. They sit on the calendar like obedient little fences: before this day you are “a child,” after this day you are “an adult,” and the world can stop thinking too hard. Paperwork smiles. Parents exhale. Governments file you into a drawer. Even you can point to the number and say, “There. That’s the moment I became something different.” It is a comforting story. It … Read the rest
I don’t enjoy writing this kind of essay. It is the intellectual equivalent of cleaning a greasy kitchen: necessary, unpleasant, and guaranteed to offend the people who insist the smell is “authentic tradition.” But if we’re going to talk honestly about political extremes, you don’t get to treat one side as a dangerous cult and the other as a quirky hobby. Extremes are not philosophies. They are stress reactions with … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
I don’t like to write blogs like this; I really don’t. I would rather devote myself to the things, beautiful, painful, complex, and rewarding, that my mind and instincts drive me to pursue.
But I am going to write this plainly. No attempt at lovely language. Just my thoughts.
First, the stuff going on in Minnesota. The uprising there is almost certainly coordinated and financed by … Read the rest
There is a certain kind of sentence that arrives like a key already cut to fit every lock. You don’t have to think too hard; you just turn it and the door opens, and behind the door there is a warm room where the world makes sense. The sentence usually sounds like this: “If a people has been chased for centuries, there must be a reason.” Sometimes it comes with … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
Sometimes a death in the family comes like grief poured over your head, a bucketful of black water. You can drown that way. Sometimes it feels like liberation. Often, it’s more of a handshake. That’s how it was with my Dad and me.
Earlier this week, a friend told me that his mother had passed. She was 93. My friend has also been subjected … Read the rest
