Columnists

10/08/2026 · Ogemaw County

The Smallest Possible Next Step

When your to-do list starts looking like a personal attack, don’t demand more motivation from yourself. Name the next physical action instead—and watch the fog lift.

10/07/2026

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Emily Dickinson’s “Hope” Is Not a Bird—It’s Stranger and Stronger Than That

Dickinson gives hope feathers, a song, and astonishing endurance—but refuses to call it a bird. That tiny choice turns a familiar metaphor into something wilder: a creatureless force that can live anywhere.

10/07/2026

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The Radical Usefulness of Forgiveness

Hannah Arendt did not treat forgiveness as a moral decoration or a soothing feeling. She saw it as one of the few tools we have for escaping the permanent consequences of what cannot be undone.

10/07/2026

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The Price Tag Is Back in the Driver’s Seat

Washington keeps selling disruption as strategy, while families and employers count the cost in grocery aisles, paychecks, and mortgage statements. Today’s biggest story sits where politics meets arithmetic.

10/07/2026

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The Immersive Van Gogh Experience Needs to Sit Down

Giant projections of famous paintings are not automatically profound just because the room is dark and everyone is wearing a lanyard. Still, I’m willing to defend what these shows accidentally get right.

10/07/2026