Tag Archives: morality
Elevators and accountability
Perhaps the most compelling moment of the long drama surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings occurred in a surprisingly small space. On Friday, in a Capitol Hill elevator, two sexual assault survivors forcefully confronted Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, whose vote is one of a handful that could determine Kavanaugh’s fate. Moments earlier, Flake […]
Gone Baby Gone
You may have heard that Xanda, the 6-year-old son of Cecil the lion, was recently killed by a trophy hunter, two years after his father was similarly slain. Both were “gorgeous Kalahari lions,” in the words of the researcher who had fitted Xanda with a tracking collar. Both ventured outside the protected confines of African […]
Dismount
I had one of those conversations with my best friend yesterday, the kind that turn south and end in stony silence on her side and frustration on mine. My friend eats a lot of eggs, always throwing out the yolks, which she dislikes, rather than feeding them to her dog or finding some other use […]
Playing God
At this time of year, it’s easy to pity bird parents, whose every waking moment seems given to providing for babies fully as big as they are. I observe this each June with robins who — having successfully reared and fledged their first brood — are trailed everywhere by sharply chirping, heavily speckled offspring who seem to have carried […]
Character
Among the many oddities that populate the universe of Internet streaming is a channel that offers a wide selection of cautionary films — those short, pithy movies intended primarily to build character in young Americans and instruct them in vital matters, ranging from dating to surviving an atomic attack (experiences that in some instances require a […]
Needless harms
At the risk of getting kicked out of the quasi-Buddhist club for “should”-ing, I will say this: We should speak the truth. We should walk our talk. And it should trouble us if we fail to do either. I used to think that these were not only reasonable but commonly understood expectations in human relations. But in recent […]
Meditatio Ephemera 