This piece was written for and placed third in the Santa Fe Reporter's 2021 nonfiction contest, in response to the prompt "What do we owe one another?" The Reporter's publication of the piece can be found here. I believe that happiness—and not just happiness but profound, unabating bliss—is our birthright. Let me explain. When we… Continue reading What we owe one another: a spiritual perspective
Tag: Teaching
The great centering: my Saturn Return and the loss of grand narratives
On a crisp morning in February of this year, I received an email from the principal of a Catholic school in my area which read: “Dear Jackson, are you currently employed?” From both the tone and the brevity, I instantly knew that this was a job offer to fill an unanticipated absence. It was two… Continue reading The great centering: my Saturn Return and the loss of grand narratives
“Are you not entertained?”: boredom, silence, age, and youth
Teaching high school these days, I am often reminded of Maximus from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, imploring the crowd, “Are you not entertained?” I scan my students’ bored, simultaneously hopeful faces, and I want to tell them: as you turn older, your lives will become both more boring, but paradoxically more pleasurable; that’s if you’re lucky!… Continue reading “Are you not entertained?”: boredom, silence, age, and youth
Summer course: Teaching as a way of being
Dear friends, I want to host a course this summer called “Teaching as a way of being.” This will be a Zoom course, so no need to be physically present in Santa Fe! The theme of the course is those subtle, pervasive ways we act as teachers and learners in a myriad of circumstances, which… Continue reading Summer course: Teaching as a way of being
The college years
One of my earliest memories of college involves showing my freshman year roommate what I had smuggled into the building on move-in day. Among my possessions, my parents and I had trucked in a pair of blue, plasticine beanbags, and it was after my parents left that I picked up one of the beanbags and… Continue reading The college years
Jackson Holzberg Buckley 