Essays Archives

Illustration of woman holding her palm toward the viewer with her face obscured by her hand.

Literary intellectuals investigate the power imagination gives us to pose unending questions about our world—viewing religion, philosophy, and science as literary genres full of metaphors.

Essays Philosophy

The Opposable Thumb at the End of the Imagination

August 17, 2023August 17, 2023 21 min read Rick Joines Henry David Thoreau, Pragmatism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Rorty, Wallace Stevens

Literary intellectuals investigate the power imagination gives us to pose unending questions about our world—viewing religion, philosophy, and science as literary genres full of metaphors.

Illustration of a woman staring into a mirror that reflects a mountain landscape rather than her own face.

Philosopher William James‘ concept of tender-minded vs. tough-minded thinkers helps us better understand what most informs our personal beliefs.

Essays Philosophy

Tender-Minded vs. Tough-Minded Thinkers

July 10, 2023July 10, 2023 17 min read Jeffrey Howard Pragmatism, Truth, William James

Philosopher William James‘ concept of tender-minded vs. tough-minded thinkers helps us better understand what most informs our personal beliefs.

Two people stand opposite of each other where two split walls of different stone designs almost meet in the middle.

Poets, like pragmatists, possess a unique ability to sit with uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts. For them, neither walls nor metaphors are ever complete.

Essays Philosophy

On the Something There Is

April 17, 2023April 23, 2023 17 min read Rick Joines Henry David Thoreau, Pragmatism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Rorty, Robert Frost, William James

Poets, like pragmatists, possess a unique ability to sit with uncertainties and doubts. For them, neither walls nor metaphors are ever complete.

An illustrated enso circle foregrounded in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Bringing meditation techniques into his new role as a middle school teacher, a former academic finds some resolution despite a new crisis.

Essays Religion

Your Job and Cancer Are Nothing: Part III

March 17, 2023March 17, 2023 11 min read Donovan Irven Buddhism, Children, Emotional Well-Being

Bringing meditation techniques into his new role as a middle school teacher, a former academic finds some resolution despite a new crisis.

A zendo in the middle of the Arizona desert.

As a recently laid-off academic becomes more immersed in a sangha, he tries to reconcile his newfound zazen practice with his western background.

Essays Religion

Your Job and Cancer Are Nothing: Part II

March 10, 2023March 17, 2023 11 min read Donovan Irven Buddhism, Community, Emotional Well-Being, Suffering

As a recently laid-off academic becomes more immersed in a sangha, he tries to reconcile his newfound zazen practice with his western background.

A middle-aged man in jeans and a button-up shirt sits in the lotus position in the Arizona desert.

Faced with his wife's cancer diagnosis, a lack of affordable housing, and losing his job in academia, Donovan Irven turns to Zen Buddhism to resolve his depression.

Essays Religion

Your Job and Cancer Are Nothing: Part I

March 3, 2023March 17, 2023 13 min read Donovan Irven Buddhism, Death, Emotional Well-Being, Loss, Suffering

Faced with his wife’s cancer diagnosis, a lack of affordable housing, and losing his job in academia, Donovan Irven turns to Zen Buddhism to resolve his depression.

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