The sink in the ward was not like the sink in room fourteen. It was larger, institutional, the porcelain yellowed at the drain where decades of hands had passed over the same spot, the iron taps stiff and slightly out of plumb. There was only cold water. The hot tap was a decoration, a concession […]
The late English philosopher, Sir Roger Scruton, spoke on conservatism in a 2017 lecture, describing a conservative as “someone who has found something to love and wants to retain it.” He then went on to define it, more generally, as a “philosophy of love.” Although I’m sure this will be perceived as controversial, especially on […]
The ceiling had not changed. The crack ran from the corner to approximately the center of the room, branching near the light fixture into two thinner, diverging lines. My eyes had traced it so many times that I had begun to suspect it meant something—though deep down I knew it meant nothing. It was only […]
Man was not made to inherit the stars but to be stewards of the Earth. “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” These words, spoken by President John F. Kennedy in […]
The paper was in my pocket when I woke. I had not put it there—or I had put it there and forgotten, which amounts to the same confession. I unfolded it at the desk in the grey light and read it again: a name, an address, the handwriting almost mine but tilted slightly and with […]
Describing my gap year as an annus horribilis is cruelly ironic, but given the circumstances surrounding it, it is an accurate reflection of what was the most tumultuous year of my life. The phrase annus horribilis itself was brought to prominence by Queen Elizabeth II in her own reflections on the year 1992, which she […]
The bitter wind had been blowing against my face for so long that I had stopped feeling it. My teeth ached. The collar of my coat was wet and was chafing a raw line along the back of my neck. I walked on. I had been in my room reading Henley. Then I was on […]
Sports are often idealized as a great unifier, existing in a vacuum away from the noise of politics and the stressors of everyday life. To an extent, I agree. There is something sacred about turning on the television or going outside with a ball in hand to escape the seemingly collapsing world around us. That […]
On March 10, the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at the Harvard Kennedy School hosted a conversation with former Deputy U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus, moderated by Institute of Politics Interim Co-Director Ned Price and Harvard Undergraduate Iranian Association President Bahar Moradi ’27. The discussion centered on the Trump administration’s recent […]
The ash was under my left thumbnail when I woke. I noticed it before I noticed anything else—before the grey light coming through the curtain, before the cold, before the particular silence of early morning that the building produced when it was trying to pass as uninhabited. I lay still and held my hand up […]