The Top 10 of 2024
The Top 10 of 2024
For the past 52 weeks, I've written an article each week. Here are the top ones.
About one year ago on Oct. 13, 2023, I started writing this blog and newsletter in earnest. I posted an article every single week—including during holidays, trips, and more.
Nineteen times more people subscribe to Reckoning today than one year ago. Thank you all for reading. I truly appreciate it.
As a bit of a fun review, I thought I’d share the “Top 10” articles that I posted in these past 52 weeks. What criteria am I using to determine these top 10 articles? I’m simply following what Substack lists as my “top” posts, which seems to be measured by a mix of views and reader engagement (likes, shares, and comments).
This is by no means a perfect measure, of course, if nothing else for the simple reason that the earlier posts have been seen by fewer people—because fewer people subscribed in the beginning than do now.
Anyway, here we go. They’re listed below in descending order from 10 to 1, and I included a brief summary of each article.
10. Revenge, Avoidance, or Forgiveness
On March 9, 2021, I delivered a statement at the sentencing hearing for the driver who had killed my son about four months earlier. I published this piece almost exactly three years to the day after that hearing.
When others wrong us, we can take revenge, avoid, or forgive. I discuss these options and how the social science on forgiveness can help us understand to some degree why it’s the better path forward. As hard as it was (and is), I do forgive that person. And doing so opens me up for something better, a life less burdened by the heavy, corrosive power of anger and resentment. It’s something close to freedom, and it’s good.
9. Why We Fight
Earlier this year, I watched the Band of Brothers American war drama miniseries. Given that it came out in 2001 and that I’m in the military myself, it’s shocking that I hadn’t watched it until now. But better late than never.
One of the final episodes was one titled, “Why We Fight.” It showed the American soldiers encountering a Nazi death camp, and it made me think about the moral clarity that seemed (at least in retrospect) to exist in certain aspects of World War II.
More broadly, it brought to mind the psychological concept of hardiness and how its components of commitment, control, and challenge are important for all of us as we navigate the adversity of life and face its difficulties head-on.
8. Making Sense of the Senseless
On Aug. 14, 2024, a senseless tragedy occurred not far from where I live. A former graduate student from the university where I’m a professor died. Although I didn’t know her, I felt compelled to write something about her and about how we might go about thinking through such terrible tragedies.
It brought to my mind how C. S. Lewis once wrote, “But pain insists being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” If we can make sense of the senseless at all, it lies in how we respond to that megaphone, how we react to that which we encounter. In so doing, we regain some sense of agency and can begin to piece together a view of the world that makes some sense while still accepting that which we cannot explain.
7. Little Plans Have No Magic to Stir Men’s Blood
In late May, I took a trip to Chicago with my son. Our purpose was just to spend time together and enjoy the city. And we did. It was wonderful.
One part of the trip included an architecture tour of the city from a boat on the Chicago River. During that trip, I learned more about the city’s diverse, beautiful architecture. But more importantly, I started thinking more about the role of beauty in our everyday lives. I’ve become increasingly convinced that beauty—construed properly—is an essential part of how we make sense of ourselves and the situations we face, and it’s a way through which we can hope, dream, and inspire.
6. The 9/11 Story Everyone Should Know
I published this one on Sept. 11 because it’s a 9/11 story. I tell my own story about where I was and what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 for me, and then I share more about a story that affected at least half a million people yet is rarely told or known.
It’s the story of the waterborne evacuation of Lower Manhattan in the nine hours after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. People fled south after that collapse, only to find themselves trapped at the water’s edge. Hundreds of mariners organized with some guidance from the U.S. Coast Guard to assist. It’s a story of resilience and shines as a beacon of moral beauty for me every year on 9/11.
5. Life-Changing Words
This article is by far the most recent one to make the Top 10 list—I published it just last week. In it, I reflect upon two brief conversations I had years ago that changed the trajectory of my career in the Navy.
I wrote it partly just out of gratitude for those people and those conversations, but it also got me thinking about how much our words can really matter. That’s encouraging because we never know how much we can make someone else’s life better through our supportive comments or advice. Yet it’s also a sobering reminder of how we might miss opportunities to improve others’ lives or how our brief interactions might actually do harm. We must be vigilant and treat every interaction as a gift.
4. The 97-Year-Old Olympian
My wife’s grandfather, Walter Nosal, was an amazing man. He had all kinds of insights and fun sayings, and he frequently forced anyone new to the family—including prospective members like anyone dating one of his granddaughters—to go through an interrogation of sorts.
He had a big influence on many people, and one of his sayings I particularly enjoyed was, “First there are Olympics of the body, then the mind, then the heart.” It’s a reminder to us all to pursue and attempt to achieve some balance across our physical, intellectual, and spiritual well-being. I don’t think this is something that’s easily done without deliberate effort and practice, yet as I get older, I continue to increasingly understand its importance.
3. I wrote about resilience before my son died. Here’s what I got wrong.
Technically, this wasn’t an article from the past year as I wrote it in March 2023. This piece emerged out of the deep intellectual and spiritual journey I’ve been on since my son Vincent died in November 2020.
Years before that tragedy, I wrote a chapter on psychological resilience for an encyclopedia. And so then while I was actually going through a painful crucible, I wondered, how did my prior thinking and writing hold up? So, I revisited the chapter, and I found it to still be technically correct—yet I had ignored the nuances of how we make sense of adversity. I had also failed to recognized the critical importance of our connections with each other in our times of hardship.
2. I Lived in a School Bus
It’s a wild tale, but it’s true. For about three months when I was 5 years old, I lived in a school bus with my parents and older brother. The bus was parked next to a barn at my uncle’s farm, and it was meant to be a temporary dwelling prior to us moving into a permanent house on the property.
Memories of those 90 days or so are seared permanently into my mind. And when I reflect back on those days, I’m most grateful for the sense of efficacy and autonomy that it gave me. We had plenty of freedom, and we were around adults who served as role models of independent living—they got stuff done.
1. Tiny Humans, Music, and Medical Ambiguity
My wife and I were blessed to welcome a new son in mid-July of this year. We knew from early in the pregnancy that he would be facing a number of challenges. Most notably, he has a neural tube defect—myelomeningocele specifically, also known as spina bifida.
Dealing with the ambiguity surrounding his conditions was difficult. The same is true of anyone facing medical situations that are difficult to predict or evade certainty. What was helpful for us was to consider first our values, and using those values or what we cared most about as a guide to our decision making.
The article also includes a video of my little guy reacting to classical music while he was in the neonatal intensive care unit. It’s adorable.
Additional Articles that Didn’t Make the Cut
There’s a very good chance that I’ve written a few (or many) articles that you haven’t seen simply because you subscribed at some point in recent months. What’s convenient for you is that all of my articles are available online in an archive for you to access.
Additionally, here are a few I consider to be oldies but (maybe) goodies.
"God is a Bunch of Drunks Together in a Room"
A Tragic Optimism, Revisited
Thank you again for reading Reckoning and for your ongoing support. I truly appreciate it so very much.
This is great. I have been meaning to do a bit of digging through your archives. We started writing on Substack around the same time but I missed out on most of your early articles.