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Select a Month April 2017 March 2017 January 2017 December 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010

May 2016

May 04, 2016

Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” And The Fertility Of Forgiveness

I'm at First Things, reviewing Beyoncé's visual album "Lemonade," which does a remarkable job telling a...

April 2016

April 19, 2016

When a Wedding Guide Leaves Out The Wedding Night

I'm at First Things, covering the unexpected gap I've found in the wedding planning books...

September 2015

September 03, 2015

A Good Marriage Isn’t A Mutual Admiration Society

In the middle of a column on married couples ineptly supporting single friends, Sara Eckel...

February 2015

February 26, 2015

Can’t I Love You Into Being Happy?

When Ellery Weil guest posted yesterday on The Last 5 Years and the demanding kind of...

February 19, 2015

Asking a Lover for Too-Limited Support

When I hosted a party to watch The Last 5 Years, one of my guests tried...

January 2015

January 22, 2015

When Discerning, Fewer Relationships are “Failed” Ones

Ilana Yurkiewicz explained, as a doctor, how she has to make an active effort to...

January 08, 2015

Throwing Spaghetti at the Modern Dating Wall

I've been seeing a fair amount in my feeds (both RSS and social media) about...

January 07, 2015

Struggling to Offer an Open House

I picked up Robert Farrar Capon's Bed and Board: Plain Talk About Marriage after reading Melanie's...

November 2014

November 25, 2014

“Safety” is a Piss-Poor Pitch for Chastity

A recent First Things post aimed to arm its readers with a positive case for chastity, one...

November 12, 2014

Interviewing Eve Tushnet on Vocations of Love

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing a Q&A with Eve Tushnet, author of Gay...

November 11, 2014

Falling in Love with the World through the Eyes of the Beloved

There's an interesting piece of research going around on what makes relationships grow and deepen...

October 2014

October 02, 2014

Writing Relationships into a Corner

Earlier this week, I was chatting with a friend about A.O. Scott's big piece on...

September 2014

September 23, 2014

If Someone Put Me in Charge of Yenta-ing You All…

Prompted by our discussion of modern dating, PEG has offered his thoughts on how to...

September 15, 2014

Nice Guys and Casual Dates [Sequence Index]

In the Fall, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of... friendzoning? In September...

September 14, 2014

The Loves We Need From Other People

Apropos of our discussion of friendship, romance, and the very confusing boundaries and barriers between...

September 11, 2014

Nice Guys, Conjoined Twins, and Starving for Love

I want to return to one specific point made in the Ben Conroy piece on...

September 10, 2014

More Reasons to Encourage Casual Dating

Ben Conroy (who recently joined the Patheos Catholic channel at Shadows on the Road) has...

September 04, 2014

Nice Guys and Failed Tries

ETA: Given the topic of the post and the tenor of some of the comments...

August 2014

August 23, 2014

Why is it easier to ask out strangers than friends?

In the midst of delivering a well-deserved rebuttal to extreme courtship culture, Thomas Umstattd mentions...

July 2014

July 28, 2014

A Poisonous Portrait of Partnership

In a coda to my series on Lewis, Sondheim, and friendship, I'm back at The American...

July 24, 2014

Missing Facets of a Friendship

This post is one in a series on friendship, explored through the lenses of Stephen...

June 2014

June 03, 2014

Christ’s Loyal Widows [Pope Francis Bookclub]

In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on...

May 2014

May 22, 2014

Putting the Casual Back in Casual Dating

Boston College students have been signing up for a class on dating, using it as...

May 22, 2014

Designing Emotional Contraception

Over at The American Conservative, I'm discussing a bioethicist who's done a literature review to find...

May 01, 2014

Praying with Viola’s Firm Resolve

Ross Douthat and PEG have been having a back and forth over the possibility of...

March 2014

March 19, 2014

What Are Shakespeare’s Lovers Talking About?

I don't have any strong opinions yet about Nate Silver's revamped FiveThirtyEight, but, on their...

February 2014

February 25, 2014

The Cost of Fetishizing Marriage

PEG has a great essay up on the odd way our culture has settled into...

February 15, 2014

St. Valentine and Pope Francis

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Relevant Radio for the St....

November 2013

November 13, 2013

Knock Knock. Who’s There? A Wedding… I think

The NYT Weddings section recently reported on a new trend for marriage officiants: marketing themselves for their...

May 2013

May 06, 2013

Highly Speculative Love Affairs

In the collection of C.S. Lewis essays I finished recently(Of Other Worlds), one of the...