Some mornings, when the air is particularly clear, or the sunrises particularly grand, I take a brief moment to reflect on the grandeur of mere existence. I don’t do it enough, but how could I possibly give All of Existence its due credit…
Author’s Note: When I first started writing this piece, I wanted to talk about my experience of touring the Stasi Secret Prison (Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen), and how as Americans, we must be vigilant against committing similar human rights violations (such as…
In reading the classic social science book, “The Guns of August,” I can’t help but think how relevant this book still is to today’s society. The book–often considered the definitive World War I narrative–spends the first third just discussing the…
On Wednesday, twelve French citizens lost their lives at the hands Muslim extremists. It was clearly an act of terror, intended to stop future satire or criticism of Muslims or the Islamic faith. These are the facts, but as a society,…
I always bring a deck of cards with me when I travel. This was my uncle’s suggestion. He told me on more than one occasion, “The most important thing to bring is a deck of cards, because if you get…
I love poker. It’s a game that reveals the inner-workings of the human mind better than any, and the small battles that take place on the felt translate directly into the real world. Legendary poker psychologist Mike Caro says the…
Border crossings are at best tedious and at worst terrifying. More often than not they’re quite boring, waiting in long lines to have some border guard give your passport the briefest of glances before stamping or not stamping it on…
There’s something fundamentally different about the way Vikings see the world. The Nordic people always rank among the happiest in the world, all landing squarely in the Top Ten in last year’s index, with Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark coming…
This piece is a continuation of my thoughts on Working to Live. If you’ve not read the previous posts, it’s basically the philosophy that life is too short to spend it unnecessarily grinding away at work instead of doing something–anything–that…
For a country that prides itself on fire and ice, there is certainly a great deal more of the latter at any given moment, than the former. Sure, there are upwards of 130 volcanoes in Iceland, and a great deal…
When the time came to finally decide how to best use our remaining vacation time in November, Iceland wasn’t really anywhere on our radar. The criteria were: 1) Somewhere we’ve never been, and 2) Somewhere warm. Imagine our surprise as…