DR: Frequently, I write articles for various Gettysburg area publications promoting the library where I work. As an organization, we supply a minimum of three articles to these publications each week. That's 156 articles each year written by ten or fifteen employees. As you can imagine, it gets hard to keep the content fresh. As … Continue reading Reading Options for the End of the World
Apocalypse
Death by a Thousand Cuts
As a nation, we marched in this direction for years, still it caught everyone off guard. It started with weed. Thirty-seven states already legalized it. Four more headed in that direction. Lots of talk during the months before the election of repealing the federal law altogether—no one enforced it anyway. As soon as he took … Continue reading Death by a Thousand Cuts
End Days
I stayed up late in those days, when our kids were young. Sophie in grade school, Eli still in preschool. We put our kids to bed by seven or eight. Susan followed around nine. I stayed up until midnight or later, reading or watching a movie. Dystopia was my jam. A steady stream of low-budget … Continue reading End Days
Boiled Frog
America is baking. As temperate areas push well into triple digits this week, the media reminds us that global heating is real. Just as real as it was five years ago, when I wrote this essay. After work today, I went for a walk. It's too hot to run, too hot to bike, kind of … Continue reading Boiled Frog
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In the movies I watch, calamity—an alien attack, an errant meteor, a rampant pandemic—unifies humanity. Nations, once enemies, begin to work together. Political divides evaporate. We become a global team battling a common foe. That’s the prevailing attitude. Let’s work for the common good. Walking out of the theater I bask in a warming glow. … Continue reading Collapse