Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

"You shouldn't see parenting as self-sacrifice so that your kids don't see love as depletion." That line from The Fax Club hits a little too close to home. The book, which documents a year-long experiment in which 100 anonymous participants answered a weekly question that arrived at them by fax, showed just how deliberate contemplation, uninterrupted by the quick dopamine hits of social media, can create real philosophical gems through the most ordinary people. The best, like this one, came out of everyday observations about human relationships.

There goes the spring travel plan . That was, selfishly, my first reaction when I read the news article last week that soldiers in the country of Benin showed on a live broadcast on national television, declaring that they had overthrown the civilian government, stripped the president of his powers, and closed the country's borders. Despite the government's declaration a few days later that an attempted coup was thwarted and people could go back to "business as usual," for the foreign traveler, the uncertainty was enough to put off casual visits.