If you are a parent of school-age children, I don’t have to tell you that COVID-19 has shaken no institution more than education. July saw a mad scramble as school districts across the nation anxiously eyed the data and monitored each other on best practices for reopening their facilities—or not.

In the dark days of the pandemic, actor John Krasinski premiered a homemade video podcast called Some Good News (or, as it soon became known, SGN). Producing it in his living room with a title card drawn by his school-age daughter, Krasinski walked the nation through the normal highlights of springtime (prom, graduation, weddings), virtual-style. Celebrity friends contributed their talents and viewers contributed short videos, artwork, and inspiring messages.

In 1765, when the American Colonies erupted over the Stamp Act, King George didn’t get it. Weren’t these subjects well treated? Did they not prosper from benign neglect? And this taxation they were incensed about was meant to cover the expense of defending them. What was their problem?

God does not bodily descend into the world without changing it forever. Those who fear our culture is returning to paganism are wrong: Our culture is developing an uneasy mix of pagan worldview saturated with perversions of Christian teaching. For example:

On the night of May 28, while the city of Minneapolis was on fire, Dawn Frederick noticed that looters had broken into a gas station on her block. Understandably, she called the police. Unfortunately, she tweeted about calling the police.

Does anyone remember when Kim Jong-un, the young and rotund Communist dictator of North Korea, died? I remember well, because it was only last month. As reported by respectable news outlets, death was all but certain, especially since Kim had not appeared at the obligatory celebration of his grandfather’s birthday in April. It’s also well known that the self-indulgent scion of his ruthless dynasty is morbidly obese and not in good health.

I’m old enough to remember a time when I didn’t start columns with “I’m old enough to remember.” When flower children roamed the earth, singing along with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, a song called “Woodstock” expressed their hope of humanity’s new dawn:

We are stardust, we are golden / We are billion-year-old carbon / And we’ve got to get ourselves / Back to the garden.

We know how that turned out.