Prose

Many of us have grown up with nation-states as natural forms of political organization. But it wasn’t always so. As Philip Zelikow points out in his world history course, the creation of modern nations as we know them today was “a very conscious development,” which began in the mid-1800s in various countries around the world. … Read more

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — / I took the one less traveled by,” Robert Frost famously wrote in a poem that everyone loves and almost everyone gets wrong. It always reminds me that our everyday decisions can change our life in unpredictable ways. So the question we can ask ourselves: How … Read more

Have you ever felt distracted on the job because you kept thinking about that one important task that was left unfinished the day before? Conversely, have you ever felt so immersed in the activity that hours felt like minutes and you found yourself working late into the night? The former is an example of psychic … Read more

Those of us on the path of self-improvement often talk about how hard it is to do the right thing. At the same time, what we fail to do is talk about is how easy it is to do the wrong thing. I was recently reminded of this unfortunate omission in our public discourse while browsing … Read more