This Month’s Featured Articles…

It was as if, one morning, without any warning, we arose to find the world a different place. Because, it was. Almost overnight, we acquired a new lexicon of terms and a distant geographic awareness that crash landed at home. Wuhan. Bergamo. Social distancing. Shelter in place. Virtual … everything. It was March, after all, and the notion of being house-bound seemed inconvenient, but somehow tolerable. The stores were open, so there was food. There were some shelves that were often empty, but the essentials [...]

Growing up in Crosby, TX, a small town near Houston, interior designer Joshua Smith knew he wasn’t like the other boys and it caused him much pain and grief. He recalls his “pink sock” moment as an example. “I had these new socks,” Smith explains. “They were actually a salmon color and matched my polo shirt. I thought they were pretty cool, but this one kid gave me such grief for wearing girl-colored socks that I never wore them again.” Somehow Smith knew he had [...]

In May of last year, I wrote a story on the forgotten treasure that is the American drive-in movie experience. How this bit of the country’s flawed but authentic mid-twentieth century culture had been quietly capitulated by the easily accessible digital grab-bag of the modern moviegoing experience. Still, the story revolved around the enduring legacy of the drive-in theatre through the decades and how its distinctiveness between movie watching, and movie outing has forged an ineffable bond between cinema, the outdoors, and our desire to [...]

What does an animal make of a pandemic? On various early morning bike rides this spring, I’ve startled foxes and bears as they saunter along our unusually quiet country roads, no doubt pleased that our iron horses have yielded such amiable byways to them. My stealthy approach catches them unaware, and they immediately scurry for the nearest culvert, but their nonchalance on the blacktop is refreshing. I return home to transform into a whirling dervish for the next eight hours, toiling like Sysyphus after an [...]

Unlike any time in our recent memory, the crisis that has befallen populations around the world has forced large scale governmental institutions to lay bare the true value of public health and safety. Emergencies, natural disasters, and traumatic events throughout history have often brought out the best and worst in society and the COVID-19 pandemic has been no exception. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the heart of the human spirit has persevered in places where community outreach is part of the very fabric of society. Local leaders and [...]