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I’m beginning to viscerally understand the reality that so many before me have learned since time immemorial: finding stuff you need during a war is hard. It’s not just the difficulty of procuring military equipment that always seems to be in short supply. There’s a speed at which basic everyday goods are destroyed during conflict…

Writing to you from border with Ukraine. Thank you all for your donations so far. I’m finding that fundraising is proving a lot easier than sourcing the supplies needed. We gave out 130+ power banks that you all donated in about 3 minutes flat, and those were the only ones we could even find to…

When someone wants to take your picture, you may feel self conscious. You may feel like your hair isn’t quite right or you “take terrible photos.” And yet, you are being asked to create a permanent record of You in this moment in time. Someone cares about you enough to ask to preserve this memory…

Throughout time great philosophers from many different walks of life have shared similar advice: the struggle is what makes life worth living. Buddha famously taught that life is struggle. Marcus Aurelius wrote that hard work is what defines humans vs all other animals. Karl Marx of course defined all of history through the lens of…

I was walking to work this morning and made my way into one of those scaffolding tunnels. I heard a sound and looked up and realized the tunnel was still under construction, and above me a laborer was standing on the framing coaxing a steel girder into place. The first thing I thought, after “that’s…

When your hair starts falling out you finally start to get all the jokes you’ve heard from comedians and on sitcoms over the years. I, for one, am terrified of the inevitable so my new best friend is the bottle of Propecia in my medicine cabinet that some company brilliantly rebranded as “Hims.” There’s a…

I just finished Dignity by Chris Arnade and it tells the story that no one in America wants to hear but everyone needs to hear: the story of the true divide in our country, between people whose lives are upwardly mobile and have hope, and people who aren’t, and don’t. Most of all, it tells…

The “Air Bud” principle, from the 1997 classic Disney movie Air Bud, is the argument that something is legal because it is not explicitly illegal. It comes from that famous line: “Ain’t no rule says a dog can’t play basketball.” I’m surprised I don’t hear this being referenced often, because it is a cornerstone of…

I almost never get jet lag, but when I do, it usually takes the form of extreme, full-body punishment. It’s like the travel gods’ version of a hangover and can stay with you for days. If you are unfortunate enough to be stricken with an airborne virus on the flight, it’s not just the drowsiness…

She leans back in the cushions of the wide berth chair, feet resting on the ottoman, draped in a blanket, laptop balanced delicately on her lap. Her left arm dangles up and over the back of the chair, forming a half halo around her face. Her hair shines in the dim light and her eyes…