Looking Back, Thinking Ahead
Returning to his roots for a new novel, writer Michael Byrne invites conversations with readers. He remembers 1976, the 200th anniversary of the nation’s founding, a revelatory historical marker. The world was in turmoil, as it is today, when the 250th birthday party is in the offing. We were coming out of Vietnam, and the disgrace of Richard Nixon, facing an energy crisis begat by a cartel of rich Arab sheiks who controlled global oil markets. I wonder where you were in 1976, physically and emotionally (if you were alive that long ago). Where do you see us heading now, 50 years later? Are we on the cusp of a dream, or on the horns of a dilemma? Check out “Off the Road.”
Blogs
Off the Road / Keeping Time / The New Dharma Bums /
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My Daughter, My Coach
In the latest chapter of Life Imitates Art, I’m now consulting with my daughter, Miki, to shake alcohol dependence, a striking parallel to the characters in my novel. Miki is part of a youth movement away from alcohol, 720 days without a drink, and counseling others as a Life Coach.
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How Do We Get to the Government We Need?
“Abundance,” a new book by journalists Ezra Klein of The New York Times and Derek Thompson of The Atlantic, offers a recipe to reorganize government operations to work better, rather than to bleed or eliminate them as Elon Musk’s DOGE “efficiency” experts have done.
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Still Learning to Balance Qi
Nobody gets out of here alive, of course, but we want to live our best life, with as much of our faculties as we can preserve, over time.