the unexamined life is not worth living. but the over-examined life makes you wish you were dead.
Pinned
Latest
matthew novenson & friends on paul
Matthew Novenson's Paul and Judaism at the End of History, read chapter by chapter, against the objections six readers would raise and against what Paul's own letters say.
Ordinary Abundance
i loved this site. the perspective it brought was a tall drink of cold water to a soul living through what i have come to believe is our actual purgatory.
paul within judaism
matthew novenson is so sensible. i find his work confirming, clarifying, illuminating.
Koko
This is Micah alone at the piano — a solo reading of "Koko" taken at breakneck velocity, closer to Bud Powell's ghost than to any comfortable swing pocket. There is no band here to converse with; the whole drama is between his two hands, the right unspooling relentless chromatic lines while the left interrupts, anchors, and finally lets go. Listen for how dry he keeps it — almost no pedal for two minutes — so that every needle-sharp note stands alone until the very end.
rowan williams
these are all pieces from rowan williams, to whom i owe so much
tolle, lege
what a beautiful, brilliant, wise book! perhaps the single best guide to the true formation of the heart that i am aware of. a regular read for me.
rowan williams: being christian
this is the first book i'd give anyone wondering what jesus & christianity are really about. definitely the book i'd give anyone disillusioned & cynical, experiencing deconstruction of their faith. simple, sensible, radical, wise, beautiful. vintage rowan williams.
reading the bible
so perfectly put
do nothing. do not stop the script.
this is really how it went down
wisdom
oof
ai
i wrote a fair bit of prolog code back in the early '90s, in grad school. ai was a thing, but it was an arcane thing, constrained in concept and by hardware. we did not then realize that attention was all we needed.
liberal christian optimism
i didn't give american politics much attention until around 2007. i'll explain that elsewhere. and then it stayed peripheral to my view until 2016. in the ten years since, i think i've lived the trajectory that david describes so well in this piece. david is well worth following on substack. i have a paid subscription.
earliest memories
i was watching an old home video of my parents the other day. we recorded it in early 1996 when jeanne & i visited them in madras. jeanne asked my mother what her earliest memory was, and my mother said: i was a little…