Essays

I helped bury a friend’s dog recently. I’d never personally buried an animal that I was so close to. I had never sat with someone I knew so well as they lost the animal that got them through so many emotional points in their life.

This dog had absorbed so much pain and joy from my friend. He was his trusted link to life. So when he became ill, my friend had to look outside his insular world built around him and his dog and realize that he had a community of friends that wouldn’t abandon …

Hallowed: 1) holy, consecrated <the church stands on hallowed ground>

2) sacred, revered <the university’s hallowed halls> <hallowed customs>

Hollow: an unfilled space : cavity, hole

It seems that institutions that once seemed paramount to a “civilized”, prosperous and growing culture are crumbling – or at least being brought into question – like never before.

Or maybe we’re just more aware of it because of the scale of the problem and speed of the news cycle. …

As I will probably say in many blogs, I’m all too aware that there are people that know way more than I do regarding just about everything I write. Generally, I’m just making observations as a casual but curious (and concerned) bystander. Often I find that my thoughts about a lot of things haven’t changed that much from when I was, say, four years old.

So with all that being said. This is what my four-year-old self thought this week.

I’m surprised that we’re not further along in our …