In 2012, a writer for The Atlantic brought to readers’ attention the decline of virtues in our vocabulary. Over the last hundred years, people were writing less and less about sincerity, patience, or mercy. Researchers noticed a sharp decline in “virtue words”: “People simply do not think/talk/write about…

“I choose novels that let me turn my brain off,” a student confessed to me. My immediate response was to chastise her, “You did not receive a brain so that it could be turned off.” However, that evening I found myself streaming an old sitcom…