There is a slow, steady drip of terrorism in the United States. But it is not just where we think it is, ensconced somewhere in the Middle East. It is all around us, all the time.

What is unique to modern America is that our hopefulness comes with a price tag that no other culture has ever been willing to pay. It comes at the expense of reality and the medium of exchange is our spirit.

Reality TV promotes the worst values and qualities in people -- and disguises them all as entertainment. Reality TV makes heroic decidedly unheroic values, characters and behavior.

From my window I see sheets of ice floating down the Danube. It's mid-winter, and I am finally here in Budapest. Last week I went with a Hungarian law...

This idea of responding to the mechanistic style of our times with art and beauty is part of a larger project that I envision as the warming of culture.

The statistics, in a review of the scientific and popular media, are clear. Coping with elder care and isolation will become a major concern for a vast number of adults at some point in their lives.