Remembered, not erased · not a book club
Reading Journey
Conversations
Conversations, not reviews. Old wisdom. Modern life.
Despite all our progress, the same questions keep returning. What is a good life? How do we stay honest, brave and kind, as we move through our beautiful, ordinary lives, with all their hidden pressures?
In Conversations. I sit with books — old and new — and let them argue with my real life: illness and work, love and responsibility, fatigue and hope. The great books are part of a long chain of writers reading and answering one another; this is where I take my seat in that conversation and ask what still holds, and how to live it now.
Come read with me — and take your seat in the conversation.
Conversations is just beginning. New essays will be added here on Wednesdays.
Until then, you’re welcome to wander the Quite Archive or start in Notes from Becoming.
Browse the conversations
Start wherever you feel drawn — each essay stands alone, but they’re all part of the same reading journey
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It Only Takes One
Pandarus steps forward and at first it doesn’t fell like a decisive moment. But almost immediately, everything around him begins to move. A Conversations essay on The Iliad, Book IV — and how little it takes for something already unstable to start again.
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The Reason Given Is Not the Reason Deciding
Conversations · Reading Journey The Reason Given Is Not the Reason Deciding Come read with me — quietly, slowly, deeply Reading: The Great Conversation, Vol 4 . · The Iliad of Homer — Book III They say it’s about Helen. […]
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Who Decides What Order Is
An army gathers. At a single command, it collapses—and is forced back into place. A reading of the Iliad on why order does not hold, and what it takes to maintain it.
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When Power Is Tolerated but Emotion Is Not
We tolerate misuse of power more easily than visible emotional response. This essay explores how that pattern shapes judgment, behaviour, and the systems we sustain.
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Stepping Into the Great Conversation
Most of what we call thinking today is exposure to other people’s conclusions. This essay explores the moment where reading stops being passive — and begins to demand a response.
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east-and-west-dialogue-between-civilizations
What makes dialogue between civilizations possible? Reflecting on Mortimer Adler’s East and West, this essay explores the fragile boundary between disagreement and dehumanization.
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The Next Great Change
Mortimer Adler suggested that the next great change humanity requires will not be technical but intellectual and moral formation. What kinds of minds must we cultivate to guide the power our civilization now holds?
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When Pressure Raises the Price
Under pressure, agency doesn’t vanish — it becomes expensive. A reflection on responsibility, drift, and growth when action carries real cost.
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Who Decides Who Is Capable?
Two books on a table — a tradesman’s manual and a philosophy text — raise a quiet question: who is serious formation really for? If liberal education is reserved for the capable few, someone must decide who is capable.
If you’d like support facing your own hard questions, visit Coaching with Jo-Anne.