I'm sitting here in The Queen Mary Pub in a small town deep in South Florida, on the fringes of the Everglades. It's nearly midnight and I find myself alone at the bar reading C.S. Lewis's "Perelandra." A few inches...

It's late afternoon in New York City. I've just swiped my MetroCard at 145th Street in Harlem and am heading downtown. I'm not holding a bouquet or joined by friends. I'm not heading home from work. I'm not, for that matter, even riding to any particular destination. I'm wearing a...

Loose gravel is starting to bite through my jeans. It's late September, and nearing twilight on a balmy, perfectly summerlike afternoon. As I suppose it always does, an entire world has come alive, ugly and beautiful and flowing around me as I sit writing like some would-be war correspondent or...

Philadelphians have long been known for their devotion to their city and its triumphs, both real and legendary. We're a people whose roots run deeper than our cynicism and whose sense of spirit is our grounding rock. In our experience, this spirit has been particularly evident in Greater...

I drank in the cafe car on Amtrak's California Zephyr as our train sliced through the wilderness of western Colorado. The late afternoon sun cast its rays across stretches of exposed mountain rock and warmed the rushing Colorado River. A lone cabin slumped between heels then slipped from view as...

On Jan. 24, Michael Bloomberg hired Rachel Sterne, New York City's first Chief Digital Officer. It was an eye-catching move -- the first of its kind in the nation -- for a city government. In May Ms. Sterne, age 27, published the "Road Map for the...