Category: Community

The General Store That Cultivated a Community One Friday at a Time

LANSING, North Carolina—Nestled in the rolling farmland in Ashe County is a tidy white-clad building whose wistful charm beckons you to stop. It’s the kind of place you may only spot if you set your navigation app to avoid highways. And even if you’re trying to make good time down Silas Creek Road, you will…


Charity, Beauty, and Dedication Are Civilization’s Building Blocks

Commentary I was three weeks late from the peak of the season, but many of the roses at Elizabeth Park in Hartford, Connecticut, were still in bloom when I visited. The experience provokes deep reflection on core issues such as how beauty, charity, and commitment are so crucial to the good society. In all my…


The Desperate Need to Restore Community

Commentary In 2019, I published what many people then told me was my best book: “The Market Loves You.” It was a reflection on C.S. Lewis’s “four loves” in light of commercial society. One of these loves involves friendship, association, and appreciation for another, and the sense of trust that comes from a routine experience of…


Small Towns, Big Hearts: A Tribute to the Builders of Our Communities

Drive down any interstate in the United States, and the sights are the same. Sure, the terrain and weather differ—Eastern Colorado sports the Great Plains and the Southern Rockies, and snow blowers are roaring in Minnesota even while tourists are basking in the sun of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. Apart from those differences, these highways are…


Why Walking Is Underrated

Walking, one of life’s simplest pleasures, has somehow become underrated. How do I know this? Well, I walk every day for nearly an hour. I start from my house in town and set out in different directions through neighborhoods, parks, and trails. I walk in the morning, afternoon, and evening. I walk during the week…


Shepherds in the Cave | Documentary

Archaeologists and art restorers begin work on the restoration of medieval cave frescoes in Italy. Faced with challenges and systemic neglect of the sites, they encounter a community of shepherds and discover a living culture worth preserving most of all. …


Good Government Starts in Our Marriages, Minds, and Communities

The turn of the calendar is never complete unless it’s accompanied by a look back at the highs and lows of the preceding year, a job that various media outlets dutifully perform. Gallup is no exception. The popular polling firm recently released its list of issues that Americans considered the nation’s biggest problems in 2022….


The Christmas Parade: Treasuring A Tradition That’s Kept the Community Spirit in America

His big ears gave him away! Elf, Brian Davis, wore a green hat that almost covered his huge, pointy ears, but they were still obvious. He was an elf, and there was no hiding it. And today, Elf Davis was on a mission. “We are having the Vestavia Hills Christmas Parade, and guess what?” Elf…


Giving the Gift of Community

Almost all of us have a person on our Christmas gift-giving list who’s perennially difficult to buy for. This isn’t because they are picky, but because of the simple fact that they already have everything. Unfortunately, the number of people on such lists may be growing, and may even include ourselves—a fact I discovered recently…


100 Farmers, Neighbors Help Harvest Iowa Farmer’s Crops After He Died Suddenly From Cancer

When an Iowa farmer died suddenly and unexpectedly from lung cancer, his neighbors rallied together within days to reap the corn crops he left behind. His family, deeply humbled, are grateful for the tight-knit community that showed their love and saved their harvest. Born and raised in Creston, Iowa, Paul Baker farmed around 500 acres…