For a while on here, I ran a series where I would collect interesting articles that I had read in recent weeks. It faded into oblivion a few years back, but, after a spurt of inspiration this past week, it has returned, at least for today.

I was first driven to write something because I wanted to memorialize the late John Sterling, the longtime voice of the New York Yankees and also of countless childhood summer nights. I don’t have much more to add that I didn’t write upon his retirement from the booth a couple of seasons ago, but the sentiment came over me deeply again as the Yankees trotted out their memorials to a man who lived his dream.

Why did Sterling have that effect? While Ross Douthat grew up on the wrong side of baseball’s greatest rivalry, he right about the rituals of baseball allegiance in a recent New York Times op-ed, especially for a child of a more information-scarce era where checking the box scores in the newspaper every morning was a required rite. Unlike Douthat, my faith is still intact, perhaps because my loyalty was never dependent on sad underdog status (even the Yankees’ recent state, one of imperial decline, is never boring), but also probably because I do not have five children. And so I maintain my rituals, whether as committed viewing or casual background noise as I go about my evening business, and this year may or may not be coordinating my social calendar somewhat around the starts of budding legend Cam Schlittler.

In other worlds, love my alma mater dearly, but there is one college I do somewhat regret applying not applying to back when I was going through that cycle: Deep Springs College in the California desert. This may not have gone well for the 140-pound pencil I was as an 18-year-old (in fact the threat of manual labor is probably why I didn’t apply), but Deep Springs’ mission inspires a sense of deep rightness within me. Michal Leibowitz recently wrote in the Times to remind us of its lessons, its ever-more-valuable ethos, especially in an era of much self-doubt in higher education.

I am glad the likes of Deep Springs exist to remind mainstream culture what it is missing. I am also glad, though, that it is as small as it is. I am not against experimental colleges or homeschooling or classical academies; they can provide useful reminders of what matters. But I am also well aware that the vast majority of the country will never get to experience them, and I would not necessarily sign up my hypothetical children for them unless they are very, very particular. This may just be the public school kid in me coming out, but I want the mainstream to learn from these prophets in the wilderness. We cannot all be them, but we can all be a little more like them.

Also, I apparently last opened the document where I started this series of article collections in 2022, and in it I had saved this article by Josh Barro on the day he decided to get married. I still like it, so I am sharing it. As a person who is reasonably happy, there is no shame in being happy, even if the present happiness is not the end goal. Revel in it every day and find that resonance, just like the students at Deep Springs.