People say difficulty is part of life and that’s true. It is even more true to say that difficulty is most of life. Even our best moments have some difficult and unpleasant aspects. Unpleasant circumstances are so common that it is fair to say they make up a large segment of the fabric of life, of the texture of our routine comings and goings. Even so, we all go through situations that stand out as especially excruciating. Robert Hicks focuses... Read more
The answer to the question of whether heterosexual men and women can be friends is more complicated than either Harry or Sally could have imagined. This is because they are both right. The trouble is that Sally’s yes is correct at only a shallow level. At important, deeper levels Harry’s no is right. I once put this question to a group of young people. One woman quickly grew incensed when I suggested the answer was, ultimately, no, men and women... Read more
Imagine once again, as I am sure you’ve done before, that you have the power to bed every woman you find attractive. Let’s say you had looks and charisma women couldn’t resist. Let’s assume you could have sex with a million of them. If you’d had sex with a million women, do you know what you would want? Sex with a million and one. You will always want one more. That is human nature. Without making an effort to curb... Read more
As a man, you can never be Alpha enough. Let’s just put that out there. All the fantasies you harbor of being the gorgeous, aloof commander of women’s attention are bound to go up in smoke. That image you have of yourself as the guy who will succeed in everything, always be the center of attention and never want for company has got to go. It’s making you miserable. “Alpha male” is a squishy category. While its precise boundaries are... Read more
Laura Doyle has set herself the modest goal of ending worldwide divorce. She isn’t aiming to do this by changing laws. She isn’t laying the responsibility for this change on men. She is instead seeking to show women the power they have to set the tone for their marriages and how to make those relationships satisfying. Doyle’s latest step toward accomplishing this mission is her book, “First, Kill All the Marriage Counselors“. The book’s cover promises to reveal to its... Read more
Each night when it is time for bed, I am the last to ascend the stairs. Before heading to the bedroom, the next to the last thing I do is check to make sure the doors are locked. The last thing I do is double-check that the door are locked. I do this because I am a father and making sure the border between the world and the home is secure is what fathers do. The parallel between this nightly... Read more
I came down the stairs at home not long ago to hear our youngest daughter whining. This is not, to say the least, an unusual experience. Since the day she was born, our youngest has been more inclined to whine and cry than her older sister ever was. On this particular day, her complaint was that the only thing that wasn’t boring for her was to play My Little Pony and her older sister “never, ever, ever wants to play... Read more
Self-pity is a constant danger. No rude boss, no criminal skulking in the dark, no unforeseen calamity can ruin your mood, damage your reputation and dismantle your relationships as efficiently as you can simply by feeling sorry for yourself. If you want to build your character and earn the trust of others, the first step is to eradicate the habit of self-pity. You may think you are immune, but you aren’t. The inclination to exaggerate our suffering, to tell ourselves... Read more
Things are not going well. More than a few us are, to put it mildly, feeling nervous about the developments in our culture: the continued breakdown of families, the rejection of traditional morality, the ongoing economic insecurity. Rod Dreher has been writing about these issues for a long time. In recent months, he has been developing the idea of “The Benedict Option,” a strategic withdrawal from contemporary culture by those who desire to cultivate more traditional approaches to life. The... Read more
When you decide to make decisions, you decide to be exceptional. Most people make no real decisions. Instead, they avoid them. They live lost in a fog, no clear destination in mind. They have no firm values. The only desires they know are those that have been programmed into them by the media, advertisers, and government. They travel in the well-worn ruts left by the throngs that have gone before. If you desire something different, you will have to learn... Read more
The Road Home
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