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Sheer, Stupid Inertia
by Griffin Jackson | Feb 26, 2015 | Placeless
It’s this inertia that, very possibly, will find us waking up in ten years in a job we never really planned on, thinking, How did I get here? This was supposed to be for the summer.
On Being a Korean Korean Language Learner
by Greg Kim | Feb 25, 2015 | Korea, Uganda
In a strange twist of fate, English has now become my first language, and I’m trying to bring my Korean up to a similarly fluent level.
Blahbligation: Not a Dating Guide
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Feb 24, 2015 | Placeless
Maybe that’s what I don’t like about the word “obligation.” It implies requirement. I have to do it. And that doesn’t seem very loving to me.
On Difference
by Michael Kelly | Feb 23, 2015 | Placeless
But in the end, I think we’re all so wrong. So long as we keep yelling. So long as we keep denouncing each others’ thoughts and words and actions as evil.
Vaccine Fundamentalism
by Robert Zandstra | Feb 22, 2015 | Placeless
Why disallow reasonable inquiry into these controversial issues, many of which are not scientific? Why substitute propaganda and ad hominem attacks for rational discussion?
Korean Renaissance
by Andrew Orlebeke | Feb 21, 2015 | Korea
As we have witnessed in countless places, economic crises tend to lead to civil unrest and increased anger towards the establishment. Not in Korea.
Planets or Penguins?
by Gabe Gunnink | Feb 20, 2015 | Placeless
One may wonder what sort of daily tasks are deemed worthy by someone with so much practice spending days. For Alfie, the answer is knitting sweaters for tiny injured penguins.
My Hypocrisy of “Presence”
by Mary Margaret Healy | Feb 19, 2015 | Placeless
Father, God, I thank you for your son, for this meal, and for the elders’ wives who bring those really great appetizers on the Lord’s Supper Sundays.
Unheard
by Matt & Laura Hubers | Feb 18, 2015 | Placeless
There have been days at home alone in which I have not once spoken aloud. Sometimes I notice this and say something just to use my voice, only to find it thick, musty, and weak.
Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
by Geneva Langeland | Feb 17, 2015 | Ann Arbor
I raise a wistful glass to the days when neighborhood paper routes provided a bicycle-mounted kid’s first taste of financial independence.
Calvinist Doctrines, Misunderstood
by Andrew Knot | Feb 16, 2015 | Chicago
10. Irresistible Grace: When, understanding that you have done nothing to earn it, you take the last scoop of cheesy potatoes at the church potluck.
Father, Forgive Me
by Cassie Westrate | Feb 15, 2015 | Placeless
I wonder about the sins that God really cares about, and I convince myself that $2.00 probably doesn’t really matter to God, right? But probably it does.
Ketchup and Blood Part Two
by Will Montei | Feb 14, 2015 | Placeless
When the professor starts class, I finally take a breath again. I’m free. No pressure. All I’ve got to do is sit here and not fart.
Tidying Up: The KonMari Method
by Catherine Kramer | Feb 13, 2015 | Placeless
For each item you own, hold it in your hands and ask yourself, “Does this spark joy?” If the answer is “yes!”, you keep it. If the answer is “no,” you get rid of it. It’s that simple.
Spine
by Abby Zwart | Feb 12, 2015 | Placeless
And I can’t stop imagining a world—an extraordinary, beautiful world—in which we all have the reed of goodness at our centers instead of a spine.
Baby Groot
by Elaine Schnabel | Feb 11, 2015 | Indiana
I can buy many cookies with $250. So when I shelled it out, my tummy ached with the loss of thousands of cookies I was hypothetically never going to eat.
Courage
by Katie Van Zanen | Feb 10, 2015 | Egypt
You risk crossing a busy street. You risk asking questions. You risk being wrong, and hurting people you love, and you risk being right, and doing the same thing.
Four Minutes in a Basement
by Bart Tocci | Feb 9, 2015 | Placeless
If you’re confident in yourself, the crowd is confident in you. So maybe starting off with, “This is my first time doing this!” wasn’t a good idea.
Oscar Snubs & Flubs
by Paul Menn | Feb 8, 2015 | Placeless
6. The Lego Movie wasn’t nominated for Best Animated Feature. I think everyone who has seen it knows immediately that this is a – SNUB
The House on Dearborn Avenue
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Feb 7, 2015 | Placeless
Dinner guests jumped out of their seats and looked around in fright but we shrugged casually, as if nothing had happened. “Oh, that’s just the Womp-Womp.”
A Writer’s Creed
by Josh deLacy | Feb 6, 2015 | Placeless
It spoke to Plath the suicidal, Keruouc the drunk, Hemingway the shotgunned, and—Snyder, voice of Buddhist Beats, who did not die of lead or alcohol, but found peace in tin cups and axe handles.
Tonight, on “Murder, She Wrote”
by Alissa Anderson | Feb 5, 2015 | New York
I’m three days into the semester, and I’m dreading the day my academic load catches up with me and I can’t sit down and enjoy some crime at the end of the day.
There and Back Again
by Ben Rietema | Feb 4, 2015 | New Zealand
But like Bilbo returning to Bag End, sometimes you return home and your neighbors are rifling through your linen and walking out the door with your cutlery.
The Wrong Altar
by Sabrina Lee | Feb 3, 2015 | Placeless
I check the box. I type my name. I submit the application. Because time is up—I have to grab my apron and rush off to work; I have to pull on my boots and walk the dog.
Trivia Crack in My Mind
by Jacob Schepers | Feb 2, 2015 | Placeless
In my mind I’m goin’ to Trivia Crack/Can’t you see the questions?/Can’t you just feel the Wheel spin?/Ain’t it just like a friend of mine/To beat me from behind?
Surprise/Not Surprise
by Amy (Allen) Frieson | Feb 1, 2015 | Placeless
I sit there in the dark, in front of the cake and ice cream and prosecco, feeling like I’m doing something wrong, listening intently and wondering when I’ll be joined.
Cinema of Bodies, Cinema of Ghosts
by Ryan Hagerman | Jan 31, 2015 | Placeless
A bigger problem is that these blockbuster heroes are not allowed to die, and they are never in any real danger of dying. We know they will always pull through and live.
Steam
by Tony Ditta | Jan 30, 2015 | Placeless
FACT ALERT: Anything invisible that doesn’t seem to be trying to kill us is just one major breakthrough away from being found out as a villain.
The Golden Age is…Now?
by Samantha Vanderberg | Jan 29, 2015 | California
What I wouldn’t give to walk the halls of Downton Abbey in the early 20th century, drink tea with Jane Austen, or ride a train down the coast of California with John Steinbeck.
Bait
by Bekah (Williamson) Medendorp | Jan 28, 2015 | Placeless
“You might have heard that you should punch the shark in the nose. This is probably not a good idea…. In many situations in which large predators are attacking you, the advice is to ‘play dead.’ This doesn’t work against sharks. Also, it’s hard to do in the water...
