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Stuff to Feel Good About!

A collection of 29 issues

Three Things We Can Do for America Right Now

Years ago, I helped a friend move. After we'd gotten all the boxes, crates, bins, and coat hangers into his new place, he stood immobile at the door, paralyzed by where to begin. It was impossible to imagine this chaos ever becoming a comfortable little corner of the

The Art of Not Giving Up

Let's say up front: we're allowed to be discouraged. There is no weakness in that. "There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors," wrote poet Adrienne Rich. Discouragement is a very human response to

Gaining Power from Difficulty

"Nothing he achieved was inevitable," President Obama said in his eulogy of Nelson Mandela. "In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, and persistence and faith. " There are a few expressions I've

How to Stay (or Get) Inspired

"It's no coincidence that 'aspiration' means both hope and the act of breathing." Writer Ted Chiang For years, I've kept a Google Doc with a cut-to-the-chase title, "Inspiration." It's a storage shed of quotes and poems and clips,

The Secret Sauce for When We're Bummed

At the hardware store, I got a trash picker, the technical name for that long-handled thingamajig with little claws at the end that you use to grab soda cans, cigarette butts, shopping bags off the ground. When I am bummed about what's happening in the world, I grab

Why Your Actions Matter, Even When They Don't Feel Impactful

Oak trees are ecological grand slams. They support 897 kinds of caterpillars; and a single - one! - clutch of chickadees needs 7,000 of those protein-packed caterpillars to fly the nest. Then, those caterpillar-fortified chickadees go forth to reduce our insect population, spread seeds, and pollinate the heck outta

What To Do Now

A common scene: Between work meetings, an unassuming chap takes a quick scan of the headlines. His brow furrows. His shoulders slump. His heart is now sinking like the Titanic. And this mere mortal, so dismayed that today's headlines are in fact worse than yesterday's, does

Two Things We Can Do to Strengthen Democracy Today

A few insights to set the mood: "The only recognizable feature of hope is action." Grace Paley, short story writer. "What if the mightiest word is love?" Elizabeth Alexander, a poet who once taught at the University of Chicago, where she met a community organizer who

How to Find Comfort in a Discomforting Season

When my Mum was diagnosed with cancer, lentil soup showed up on her porch. Friends picked her bouquets from their gardens, baked her bread from their sourdough starter, sent letters quoting Rumi and Wendell Berry, which she perched on her windowsills. And my mother whose spine was straight and fierce

Where the Saviors Are

"K-I-D!" Coach Murphy bellowed from the pool deck at swim meets when I would ask him how our team was doing. "Don't WASTE my time with that. Go swim your heart out and get me a BETTER score." So I'd refasten my