My personal letters, though, are another story. Between 1982 and, roughly, 2002, I wrote thousands upon thousands of personal letters. In those letters, I really learned (at least as far as I know) the craft of writing. Those letters contained everything from experienced moments and hikes, to philosophical discussions, to book reviews, to bizarre fictional stories (blades of grass would bizarrely spring to life and have discussions with dandelions), to album analyses, to worries and frustrations. Many of those letters I typed out, but an equal number I wrote out long hand. Looking back almost two decades after writing so many personal letters, I can see how much of a life line those were for me during my teens, 20s, and early 30s. While much of that personal element transferred to emails and social media (I’m certainly not proud of this), the philosophical elements all went into writing for web or publication.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/03/on-loving-writing-bradley-birzer.html

Rather than keep motorists away, however, the moniker piqued curiosity—thanks in part to the Nevada Commission on Tourism. The public relations director at the time saw an opportunity in the article and released a Highway 50 survival guide the same month the Life article came out, rewarding visitors to the area with a certificate of survival signed by the governor. Highway signs touting the qualifier went up along the route at the same time, and it graduated from opinion to slogan.
— Read on www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/nevada/pictures-loneliest-road-america-route-50/

Sharing the winter experience with other people can also help cultivate the imagination needed to relish the short days and long nights of winter. One of my most precious memories is spending a week in remote northern Manitoba with my family and some friends in the deep winter in a cabin with no heat, electricity, or plumbing. Although that may sound cold and remote, we were actually in constant contact with fire. Cooking, bathing, heating our rooms, and illuminating our evenings all required building fires and maintaining them constantly. This kept us all busy, and when we weren’t building fires, we were gathered around them, reading, drawing, telling stories, or playing fierce games of Canasta. The nights we spent next to the frozen lake were illuminated by the stars and Aurora Borealis, unpolluted by any artificial light, and the sobering thrill of finding actual wolf tracks near our cabin still haunts me.
— Read on verilymag.com/

From an incredible former Hillsdale student, Margaret Handel.

Despite the colony’s short lifespan, Dearfield was one of the most successful African-American communities in Colorado. “Dearfield was a farming success and a model for black farming communities around the country and was taken down, not by mismanagement or ignorance, but by the dust storms,” Junne said.
— Read on www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/inside-dearfield-colorado-ghost-town-was-once-bustling-all-black-n975716

This is a critical story in American history. Discrimination against blacks, of course, was rampant and heinous. But, the frontier allowed for fascinating freedoms and autonomy.

Remember when conservatives used to be antiwar, opposed centralized power, and actually wanted to eliminate government agencies rather than just take them over?
— Read on tomwoods.com/ep-1350-remember-when-conservatives-didnt-make-you-pull-your-hair-out/

Competitors such as Spotify are making investments to creep closer to Apple. In the meantime, Apple seems to be doing not much at all.
— Read on www.macworld.com/article/3345577/apple-dominates-the-podcast-market-but-for-how-long.html

Despite their contrasting metaphysics, Thomas Hobbes and John Bramhall were Royalist supporters during the English Civil War. Both men believed that monarchy was the best form of government despite their opposing perceptions of liberty. If philosophy influences politics, why then would two thinkers’ opposing philosophical views result in support for the same form of government? (essay by Nayeli Riano)
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/02/thomas-hobbes-john-bramhall-liberty-necessity-nayeli-riano.html

Andrei Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker” is about a man who leads others, however obliquely, and despite obstacles, both external and internal, to faith. Faith is faith. Without it, man is deprived of any spiritual roots. He is like a blind man. (essay by K. V. Turley)
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/02/stalker-andrei-tarkovsky-kevin-turley.html

“Liberal education and the free society have always been intimately connected. A liberal education, an education which prepares one for freedom, gives rise to a society of individuals who must then exercise their freedom well. St. Augustine argued that freedom was truly freedom to live rightly; a liberal education is one which prepares an individual to exercise wisdom in a series of choices which effect not only himself but his society at large. Our American society is an outgrowth of a broader culture, one which springs from “a fairly uniform tradition of wonderful richness coming from Greece, Rome, and Judea. In our antecedents are the gifts of the Hebrews and later the Christians for a spiritual life and intensity which have resulted in our belief in the reality of the inner man.”[1] Transferring an awareness of our culture and the roots of our specific society is a key task of liberal education.

Such an education becomes even more significant when set in the context of twenty-first century America. In an increasingly technologically linked age with a nearly universal franchise, the burden of freedom is both tenuous and precious. A democracy could always hand its liberties to a tyrant, either out of fear or through deception; these realities make the ability to recognize threats to the nature of the democracy vital for its continuing health. The present danger to the United States as a free society is more subtle; as an increasingly wealthy technological superpower, the temptation exists to embrace Marx’ identification of humanity as nothing but homo economicus.”

The rest of this essay may be found on The Imaginative Conservative.