Vertical: Culture
Sometimes You Just Lose
There’s a silence after the call ends, after the scoreboard freezes, after the last box is checked. It doesn’t say, “You’ll bounce back.” It…
Discipline: The Forgotten Virtue
A meditation on restraint, mastery, and the art of living deliberately There’s a sound to discipline. It’s the rasp of a blade being sharpened…
An Open Letter to Mrs. Jean Shine
Central Texas lost one of its great servants this week, and I lost one of mine. Mrs. Jean Shine, Civilian Aide Emeritus to the…
Kings Without Crowns
A meditation on gratitude, progress, and the paradox of plenty A hundred years ago, kings died from infections we treat with a pill. Queens…
Faith, Hope, and Love
A meditation for the agnostic, the believer, and everyone in between Governments rise and fall, systems fail, leaders disappoint. But faith, hope, and love…
Ten Miles Apart, Two Very Different School Districts
Temple ISD and Belton ISD sit barely ten miles apart, but their students, histories, and civic identities tell very different stories about public education…
The Quiet Truth
A Thought Experiment on Truth, Silence, and Moral Responsibility Abstract This thought experiment examines the ethical dilemma of whether to disclose a painful truth…
You Want to Know What Happiness Is?
You want to know what happiness is? I’ll tell you what it’s not. It’s not a commercial with a couple on a beach holding…
Louder Isn’t Leading
Democracy doesn’t break in silence. It erodes, one argument at a time, until listening is replaced with shouting, and shouting with cheering. And when…
The Rocks at the Bottom of the World
They grow more slowly than fingernails move across a human lifetime. They shelter animals we have barely begun to name. They contain metals needed…