Articles

BACK IN THE EARLY '90S , some family members and I trekked north from California to Oregon. We stopped for a little rest and recreation at a coastal hotel known for its focus on books.

Barry Huff doesn't waste a minute. Flying west in the wee hours of the morning, he proves that—even at 30,000 feet—he can tie up the loose ends on his most recent Journal piece.

FROM THE BEGINNING, Tibet struck me as a place peopled by quiet dissenters. On the one hand, there are the Tibetans who silently oppose the Chinese occupation; on the other, there are those who oppose the material world altogether in search of the spiritual.

IT'S NO FUN BEING THE TARGET of mean or unfair treatment. Is there anything you can do when someone mistreats you for no apparent reason? When I met my future mother-in-law for the first time, I was caught completely off-guard by her immediate hostility and unkindness.

THIS PAST SUMMER I enrolled in an introductory photography course with a focus on infrared and high speed films. I was hesitant at first, since I'd struggled with mechanics and process during my last photo class back in my sophomore year in high school.

THROUGHOUT HIGH SCHOOL, the most dreaded days of school were the ones when I had to take tests. I'd always been good at taking them until I reached high school, when, for some unknown reason, I became stressed out before tests—gripped by the fear that I wouldn't know the answers and would fail.

Five years ago, on September 11, 2001, the United States experienced its first terrorist attacks on native soil. Since that time, countless articles, sermons, blogs, television commentaries, and newspaper accounts have tried to make sense of the attacks.

I WAS STUCK. I had recently left a full-time college teaching position, in part so I could engage more actively in conflict resolution with a religious dimension, my area of expertise.

I was 12 years old. I remember walking with my father, holding his hand, through the Mexican marketplace where silver and different types of jewelry were being sold.

OFTEN WE SEEM TO LIVE in a disturbed, troubled world—with troubled governments, wars, shaky economies, natural disasters. The list goes on.