When I landed back in Bismarck on the eve of the eve of the great eclipse, and thought what it would mean to miss such a cosmic moment, I spontaneously threw a sleeping bag and tent into my car and drove off to Wyoming.
Thomas Jefferson: Weeping for America
Jefferson wrote, "I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves, by the generation of 1776, to acquire self government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be that I live not to weep over it."
It’s the Vision, Not Always the Man
Real Radio
The Community We’re Creating
Spelunking for Truth in a Disillusioned Era
A Word About Fathers and Daughters
If you ask me what the most successful relationship was in Jefferson’s 83-year life, I can answer unequivocally that it was with his elder daughter Martha, whom he called Patsy, at least when she was young. She adored her father, and was a fierce and lifelong protector of his privacies, his sensitive spirit, and his reputation.
Off the Grid
Scenes of Visionary Enchantment
Beer, Bratwurst, and Bombast
People are always surprised that I’m lukewarm about the Fourth of July. For the first twenty years of my life in tights, I usually wound up somewhere reciting the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July, but in more recent years I have ignored the big day the way Jefferson tended to ignore Christmas.
Jefferson: The Reluctant Politician
Checks and Balances, Jefferson, Checks and Balances
The Death of Decorum in the White House
Erasing the Past
A KKK hood over Jefferson’s head at one of the premier academic institutions of the United States? Columbia, I thought you taught your students to think, to discuss, to reflect, to ponder, to debate, to imagine, to explore rather than merely to posture in righteousness. Really, the students of Columbia are now joining the new American Culture of Outrage? I thought Columbia was above cliché.
A Word or Two Before You Go
Whither American Character?
Order a Pizza, Tie my Shoes, Sing in the Shower, Overdraw my Checking Account, Change a Printer Cartridge
Jefferson’s early biographer James Parton famously said the third president could “Calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play the violin.” When I actually paused to read Parton’s statement carefully the other day, I realized, all over again, what a remarkable man Jefferson was.
